


Professor Layton and the Nonary Game

by elliseleven



Category: Layton Kyouju Series | Professor Layton Series, Zero Escape (Video Games)
Genre: 999: Nine Hours Nine Persons Nine Doors, 999: Nine Hours Nine Persons Nine Doors Spoilers, Curious Village Spoilers, Gen, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Layton Kyouju | Professor Layton Spoilers, Lost Future Spoilers, Morphogenetic Fields (Zero Escape), Nonary Game (Zero Escape), Pandora's Box Spoilers, Zero Escape Series (Video Games) Spoilers, first nonary game
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-24
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:28:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 22
Words: 64,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24893923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elliseleven/pseuds/elliseleven
Summary: After Luke, Clark, and Brenda moved to America, Hershel and Flora made arrangements to visit them. This holiday was supposed to be a relaxing time away from teaching and school for both of them. However, Zero had other plans.
Relationships: Brenda Triton/Clark Triton, Flora Reinhold & Luke Triton, Hershel Layton & Flora Reinhold & Luke Triton, Kurashiki Akane & Kurashiki Aoi
Comments: 43
Kudos: 29





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> as i haven't got very far into the story yet, i may need to update the tags as i go. i will let you know in the notes if i have, if it's important (if i change the rating, for example)

After Luke had moved to America and Flora had gone back to school, Hershel felt incredibly lonely. The two of them had been constants in his life, and he would always be grateful for their company. So being without them both was hard, especially since it was difficult to contact any of his other friends. 

Randall was busy enjoying his new life with Angela and Henry. Hershel saw no reason to gatecrash their friendship. Emmy had made it clear not to contact her anymore. She told Hershel that she couldn’t face their kindness any longer. And Claire… Hershel sniffed and quickly put that thought to the side. He would never see her again.

The next few weeks were almost torturous for him. Puzzles and work helped pass the time and distract him, but whenever he took a break, he only remembered how alone he truly was. It was like a slap in the face.

So when he got a letter from Luke in the post, he was overjoyed. He almost tore the letter trying to get it out of the envelope. In his haste, he had completely forgotten about his letter opener that he always kept on his desk. He blushed furiously when he realised this afterwards.

Despite the embarrassment, Hershel unfolded Luke’s letter and smiled as he saw the familiar handwriting. He couldn’t wait to read what Luke had to say.

_ Dear Professor Layton, _

_ It’s been a while since we said goodbye. How have you been? _

Hershel chuckled at the thought of telling Luke the truth. Perhaps it would be best not to worry the poor lad with his deteriorating mental state. He continued to read.

_ I’m all settled in and making new friends here. _

_ Now, I know what you’re thinking and no, I don’t have any new puzzles for you. I’m sorry, but I’ve been too caught up in my school work to really notice anything. _

Hershel frowned. That was very disappointing. So why was Luke writing to him?

_ However! Mum, Dad, and I really miss you and we were wondering if you wanted to come and visit. Bring Flora too! I bet she’s never been abroad before, and we’d be so happy to see her again.  _

_ I know you’re busy with your job and Flora’s busy with school, but the holidays are coming up soon, so I’m sure you two can find some time! _

Hershel smiled. Luke was right. Maybe they could finally visit. He had wanted to visit many times before, but both him and Flora were too busy to even think about it. But now, maybe there was a chance.

_ Please reply to this letter if you are planning on visiting! Preferably after you’ve booked the ferry, so we can save paper! _

_ I’m hoping to see you soon! _

_ Your friend and apprentice, _

_ Luke _

Within the next two weeks, Flora and Hershel had both agreed on a time to visit, and before they knew it, they were on the ferry to America.

“This is so exciting, Papa! I’ve never been outside of England before!”

They were both standing on the deck with the wind whipping past them. Hershel made sure to hold tightly onto his hat.

He chuckled, happy to see Flora looking so delighted. “Yes, it is very exciting. I have never travelled to America before either. I’ve been to other places, as you know, but it is nice to go abroad in… less dire circumstances.”

Flora giggled. “I bet! Gosh, I can’t wait to see Luke! It’s felt like an eternity since he moved!”

“I quite agree,” Hershel nodded. He missed his friend a lot, but it won’t be long until they meet once again.

The ferry finally reached its destination, and Hershel and Flora made their way off the ship. The Tritons were dutifully waiting for them at the harbour. Brenda had to hold Luke back until Hershel and Flora had actually got off the ferry and onto dry land.

“Professor! Flora!” Luke was let go as soon as Hershel and Flora were in sight. He hadn’t stopped trying to wriggle free of his mum’s grasp, so she gave up in the end and let him go.

Luke sprinted towards his two friends and almost bowled Flora over, despite her being much older than him.

“Hey, Luke,” she laughed once she had regained her balance. “Miss us much?”

“So much!” Luke said. Both of them tried very hard not to break down into tears.

Hershel, to Flora’s surprise, had trouble with this too. As Luke hugged him tight, she could see tears roll down his cheeks. He quickly brought his sleeve to his face before Luke had a chance to see him.

“Professor, I missed you so much. I’m so glad you’re here.” His voice was muffled by Hershel’s coat.

Hershel nodded, not trusting his voice to stay level. He cleared his throat. “Yes, my boy. I did too.”

Luke hugged Hershel a lot longer than he did Flora. She understood that the two of them were closer, but it was hard not to feel jealous of that. But when Luke stepped away from Hershel and shot an adorable grin her way, it was easy to forget her previous jealousy.

Luke could finally step away for Clark and Brenda to greet the two visitors, to their relief.

Clark, who would usually greet friends with a simple pat on the back, held Hershel in a hug for a considerably longer time. 

“It’s great to see you again, Hershel.” His voice cracked slightly, which didn’t help Hershel in trying to keep a stoic expression.

“You too, Clark.”

Brenda’s hug to Hershel was very much the same and soon enough, all three adults had tear-stained cheeks. The Tritons’ laughed it off pretty easily, but Hershel found it a little more difficult. It took Flora telling him that it was okay to cry in public for him to consider that as the truth. 

The drive to the Tritons’ apartment from the harbour wasn’t very far, but Hershel and Flora made sure to take in their surrounding as much as possible. 

Despite this, Hershel couldn’t help thinking about his dear Laytonmobile that he had left at home. Hershel missed it very much (he had to take his hat off for the drive), but he knew he wouldn’t get much use out of it here. He was concerned about driving on America’s roads as well, to be frank. He feared that driving on the other side of the road would confuse him too much.

“Oh, we got used to it pretty quickly. Brenda wouldn’t let me drive straight away though,” Clark told Hershel after he had voiced his previous worries.

Brenda grinned. “I didn’t want you to cause a car crash! That’s all!”

“I understand, dear.”

The Tritons’ apartment was small compared to their mansion in Misthallery, but it was still expansive. Despite there only being two bedrooms, the five of them found that Hershel and Flora would have no trouble sleeping in the living room.

Brenda and Clark, of course, didn’t let Hershel convince them into letting him sleep on the sofa. They inflated a mattress which he would sleep on. Flora said she would take the sofa. She said she needed her space now that she was an adult, and no one objected.

Brenda’s cooking was delicious, as always. Luke had insisted they got a takeaway, but he was outnumbered. Hershel dearly missed his friend’s cooking, and Flora wanted to try some since Hershel had talked so highly of it before.

They watched a film on the TV after eating until Luke had drifted off to sleep.

“All of that excitement must have tired him out,” Clark chuckled. He looked at his watch. It was coming up to 11pm. “Well, if it’s no trouble to you, I think I’ll head to bed too.” He yawned widely.

Hershel chuckled. “I’m sure that is fine with us. Flora?” He looked across to his daughter whose eyelids were drooping.

“Huh?” She gave a start as Hershel said her name.

The three adults laughed as Flora’s cheeks burned red, shown in the light of the TV.

“I said, would it be alright if we all turned in for the night? I think Luke has fallen asleep.”

Flora nodded, too tired to string together a proper sentence. 

“Well,” Clark stood up from the sofa and stretched. “I’ll see you tomorrow, my friend.”

“Goodnight, Clark.”

Flora and Hershel bid goodnight to Clark and Brenda. Luke was fast asleep so they decided to leave him be.

Once the sitting room was empty, Hershel turned off the TV. Flora chose the bathroom to get changed and Hershel the sitting room, after he checked that all the curtains were drawn. Flora, being as tired as she was, could only manage “goodnight” before she fell onto the sofa and fell asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow.

Hershel chuckled. All the travelling the two of them did must have tired her out. “Goodnight, Flora.”

Hershel usually had trouble falling asleep at night. His brain was always alert, worrying about teaching tomorrow’s classes or finishing marking. Most of the time, he skipped sleep altogether. But he had no trouble tonight. Perhaps his brain knew he was on ‘vacation’ and that he had no work to worry about. Whatever the reason, Hershel fell asleep fairly quickly.

Before Clark and Brenda go to bed, they always check the windows and doors. They have never had a break-in or robbery, but they made sure regardless. They couldn’t let anything happen to Luke. They thought about themselves too, of course, but Luke was always at the forefront of their minds.

With the exciting arrival of Hershel and Flora, however, they forgot to do this tonight. They would never agree on who it was, but someone had forgot to lock the door into their apartment before the five went to sleep. So it had been easy for the unknown figure to take them. One smoke bomb full of Soporil in the sitting room, and one in the child’s bedroom was easy. All five of them were asleep and none of them woke during this process.

_ Damn, they’re all out like a light. This is the easiest one so far! _

The man sleeping beside the girl in the sitting room was worrisome, but he didn’t wake either. He would feel the effects of the Soporil as well, but it didn’t matter. He wasn’t important.

For good measure, he set off another smoke bomb in the parents’ room. Again, they didn’t wake up at all.

Once he knew the anaesthetic had worked, he slung Flora over one shoulder and Luke over the other. They were surprisingly heavy for little kids, but he could carry them with ease.

He had to drop them to close the door. It didn’t matter how loud he was since all the inhabitants were drugged up, but he couldn’t take any risks. This had to work.

The figure was easily concealed in his black cloak as he kept to the dark alleys. He made it quickly to the van and threw the two children inside. That made eighteen of them. Perfect.

The man stepped into the van and gave a nod to the driver. They knew each other well, but this was no time for friendly greetings. They had work to do.


	2. Chapter 2

Luke was sound asleep on the bed when the room started to shake. Any normal child would have woken up with a start, but not him. Luke could sleep through anything. The rumbling only lasted for a couple of minutes, but only after that did Luke finally wake up.

Luke’s eyelids fluttered for a moment. He still felt groggy from the large dose of anaesthetic he had been given. Despite feeling as if he could fall back to sleep at any moment, his mind whirred away. He knew something was wrong.

His bed felt different, and he felt higher up than he should be. His eyes flew open and he was met with a cold metal ceiling.

“Ow!” In his panic, he had sat up only to hit his head. He rubbed it roughly until the pain had subsided. His eyes widened. “My hat!”

He looked to the side automatically, but instead of seeing his familiar bedroom wall and his bedside table, he saw a bunk bed and a metal wall. Why was there so much metal? Where was he?!

Taking a closer look around the room, he saw a large door with a number one painted on it. It looked as if it was painted in blood, but… it can’t be, right? Luke knew it was naive to pretend it wasn’t a possibility.

He decided nothing was going to get done just sitting where he was, so he climbed off his bunk bed. Once he was off the bed did he realise how uncomfortable it was. How he could sleep there, considering his comfortable bed at home, was beyond him?  _ Home…  _

Luke began to cry. Tears fell onto the cold, gray floor, and he suddenly realised that he was alone. He had no idea where he was or how far away he was from his family, and he had no one to help him.

He didn’t bother shouting for help. He was sure that the metal would just cause his voice to bounce, no matter how loud he was. He sighed and got up off the floor.

“Okay, Luke. No time for tears. I have to figure out what’s going on.”

He wiped his eyes and felt something cold press against his cheek. He looked down at his wrist. At first glance, it looked like a watch, but it only showed one number.

“That’s the same number as the door!” Luke glanced from the watch to the door and back again. “What does it mean? Well, apart from being the professor’s number one apprentice, of course.” He chuckled at his little joke then steeled himself. There was no time for jokes.

He studied this bracelet a little more. There were buttons on the sides, but they did nothing. He tried to tug at it. No use.

He sighed. “What are you? What do I need you for?”

Talking to an inanimate object, he realised, would just waste time, so he got to looking around. 

The two bunk beds took up most of the room. Behind him was a port hole. Luke scrambled up onto the table to get a good look. What he saw made his stomach lurch.

“I’m out to sea?!”

His voice echoed around the room, and it made him jump. He decided not to shout like that again. At least not in this creepy room.

His mind went blank. How could he be out to sea? He didn’t remember jumping on a boat, and he would have no reason to leave America. The only thing he remembered before ending up here was falling asleep on the sofa while watching a film with his parents, the professor, and Flora.

_ So I’ve been kidnapped and put on this boat? Great. _

He shook his head.  _ There must be some way to get out of here- _

No sooner had he said that when the portal window started to crack.

Luke jumped away from it instinctively.  _ No! Please don’t break, little window. You’re going to make it flood! _

Playing nice with the window did nothing. It broke completely and water started to pour through. Luke yelped and ran to the other end of the room. He didn’t have a fear of water - he’d learned to swim when he was very young - but this whole situation was making his head swim. He didn’t know what to do! How was he going to get out of here?!

He began to tug on the door, desperate to get out, when he stopped.

_ Luke, you have to keep a clear mind. Isn’t that what the professor always says? _

This thought calmed Luke considerably. He didn’t even stop to think that it wasn’t his voice.

“Right. Let’s do this then!” If he treated this like a puzzle, it would take no time at all!

With that confidence, he set to work and tried to ignore the quickly rising water. It had completely covered his ankles and he had to wade about the room, which didn’t exactly help to save time.

Using common sense, Luke found everything he needed pretty quickly. The boxes and keys were simple to find. However, it didn’t seem as simple as putting the two together. There seemed to be a code that Luke needed to enter in order to open them.

He laughed, despite feeling the water lapping at his shins. “Piece of cake!”

He found the codes and solved them in no time.

In one box, there were a bunch of red key cards and in the other there was a file. Luke skim read it quickly and it talked about a… digital root? He frowned. He had no idea what that was. Even after reading the explanation, he couldn’t process it. There was just too much going on.

He felt himself tearing up again.

“I can’t do this!” He let out a small scream of frustration.  _ “I can’t do this!” _

_ Luke… _

He stopped in his tracks. Who was that?

_ Luke, it’s me. Flora. _

“Flora?!” Luke dropped the book he had been holding in surprise and groaned as he realised that it was now soaking wet.

He heard someone giggling, which would have been creepy if he didn’t recognise it.  _ I know this is hard to believe, but we can read each other’s minds. _

“What?! Where are you? How are you talking to me right now?”

_ Luke, you don’t have to shout. You can think too, you know. I can’t tell you anything right now. We don’t have time. Please just listen to me. _

Maybe it helped that Luke had seen some strange things on his adventures with the professor, so he didn’t question this. Flora and him had some sort of special power that had somehow never surfaced until now? It made sense… kind of.

_ Fine. What is it?  _ Luke didn’t mean to be so blunt, but after all he had been through in the past twenty minutes, Flora didn’t take offense.

_ I’m going to tell you how to open that door, okay? You have both sets of keycards, right? _

_ Yep. Blue and red. Just like us! _

Flora giggled.  _ I guess so. But listen. You’re going to have to find the digital root of these. _

Luke threw his hands up in the air but didn’t speak.  _ I know that! I can read! I just don’t get it. This is too much. _

Flora paused, most likely taking a deep breath.  _ Alright. Well, I have the answer. I can just give it to you or I can explain how to do it. _

Flora knew the answer Luke would give before he even thought it.  _ I want to work it out myself! And how did _ you  _ figure it out before me?! _

_ Hey!  _ Flora sounded offended at that, and Luke blushed.  _ I can solve puzzles too, you know! I’m Professor Layton’s daughter! _

_ I know.  _ Luke slumped.  _ I’m sorry _

_ Don’t worry about it. How high is the water now? _

Luke looked down, even though he didn’t need to.  _ Up to my knees. _

_ Shit! _

Luke’s eyes widened. He had never heard Flora swear before. She had probably thought it before she had a chance to stop herself.

_ We don’t have time for this! I just need to tell you, okay? _

Luke swallowed his pride. It was hard for him to do, but he would rather make it out alive than die trying to solve one little puzzle.  _ Okay. _

Flora told him which cards to swipe and what the digital root was.

Luke clicked his fingers together with a grin seconds after Flora told him the answer. “I get it now! You add the single digit numbers together until you make another single digit!”

_ Just do it! _

Luke jumped, even though the volume of Flora’s voice hadn’t risen. He quickly obeyed her and swiped the cards she told him. 

“It worked!”

_ Great. Now get out of there! _

_ Right. _

Luke wasn’t the strongest so it took a while to him to open the door with the water swirling around him. He opened it enough to squeeze through, and he ran outside. 

He found himself in a corridor, but he had no time to admire his surroundings. Water was beginning to rush out of the room. Luke ran in the opposite direction. There was a door right at the end of the corridor. He tore down the corridor and threw the door open. Thankfully, that one wasn’t locked.

He found himself in a lavish room with a wide staircase. It was almost the complete opposite to the room and corridor he had been in only moments ago.

Once again though, he had to take off running. The water that had been still only a second ago had turned into a huge wave.

“Argh! I need to get out of here!”

He took to the stairs and ran right to the top - A Deck.

“Huh?”

Luke stopped in his tracks. On either side of the staircase, he saw eight other kids staring right at him. They looked about his size, but he knew they must be younger. Why were they all here? Why was he here?!


	3. Chapter 3

Flora had been through exactly the same experience as Luke, apart from one thing. She knew her purpose there. And so did the other kids she had been grouped with.

A loud crackling cause Flora to wake. There was a period of silence which must have been saved for the kids to get their bearings and then a person began to talk over loudspeaker. It seemed that there were electrical appliances on a ship. Later as water rose around her ankles, Flora would find that very irresponsible.

“Welcome aboard. I welcome you all to my vessel. I am Zero, the captain of this ship, and I’m also the person who invited you here.”

Flora frowned. She didn’t remember anyone inviting her anywhere. She didn’t even remember being kidnapped, if that was what happened. Zero interrupted her thoughts.

“You have rules upon your person. Read them.”

Flora frowned then searched her pockets. She reluctantly pulled out the piece of paper in her dress pocket and began to read. Something about numbered doors, numbered bracelets, and digital roots. It sounded simple enough to her, but why bother with all this? What was this for?

To her surprise, Zero answered her questions.

“The purpose of this game is simple. Help your siblings escape.”

“What?” Flora knew Zero couldn’t hear her, but what they said made no sense. She had no siblings.

“You have all been chosen because you are espers. ‘What’s that?’ you ask. Well, espers can resonate their consciousness with another person through a morphogenetic field. But that’s getting too technical for little kids. It’s basically telepathy, okay? And you can use that to help your siblings escape. Isn’t that what you want?”

Flora didn’t understand. She didn’t _have_ a sibling! And she was a telepath? This was news to her. She didn’t believe it.

Then she heard it.

_Well, apart from being the professor’s number one apprentice, of course._

“Who was that?!”

There was no one in the room with her, at least someone she could see. And then she realised. She _knew_ that voice.

“Luke!”

Luke wasn’t her sibling! But they acted a lot like siblings… Maybe that’s what Zero was talking about. Maybe it didn’t have to be blood related.

Zero began to talk again, as if they had prepared for this interruption.

“Your siblings are currently trapped on a boat that looks just like this one. But theirs is real. Yours is fake.”

Flora looked around her room. It sure looked real, but perhaps it wasn’t.

“You have to help them escape with the knowledge that you have, if you ever want to see them again.”

Her eyes widened. They wouldn’t dare! But how did she know? She had no idea who this person was. Zero could be capable of anything.

“You have to help them solve the puzzles in this room and similar puzzles elsewhere, and you both have to escape through the number 9 door if you want to see them again. Alive.”

That last word sent shivers down her spine. Images flashed in her mind of seeing Luke’s body floating on the water, lifeless-

No! That won’t happen! They’ll escape together!

“There’s one thing I must tell you.”

Flora rolled her eyes. _What now?!_

“As you have no doubt surmised, the ship your precious siblings are on have begun to sink.”

She sat up in shock, hitting her head on the ceiling. She felt no pain. All she could think about was Luke. He was in danger.

“On April 12th 1912, the famous ocean liner Titanic crashed into an iceberg. After remaining afloat for 2 hours and 40 minutes, it sank beneath the waters of the North Atlantic. I will give them more time.”

Flora let herself relax a little. _More time. That’s good!_

“9 hours. That is the time they will be given to escape.”

Flora nodded. It wasn’t much time, but it was longer than 3 hours. This could work.

“Now it is time. Let our game begin. I wish you all the best of luck.”

Zero spoke for the last time and the room felt eerily quiet without their voice.

Flora took a deep breath and climbed down from the bunk.

She heard the port window crack, but she didn’t flinch. It didn’t surprise her that the room would be an exact copy of the real ship. It made sense to her.

_All right. You can do this, Flora. For Luke._

She got to work immediately. With a clear head, Flora made light work of the first parts of the puzzle, just like Luke. Knowing about digital roots from before made it easier to wrap her mind around what she had to do. She quickly picked the right cards and went to swipe them when she heard Luke’s voice.

He sounded defeated already. That wasn’t like him! But she understood how scared he must be. Flora had no idea how to contact him, but she tried hard to concentrate on him, feeling helpless in the same room she was in.

And it worked. Soon, they were communicating and Flora was trying to explain as calmly as she could what to do.

As she was ‘talking’ to Luke, she noticed the thing on her wrist and the number on the door. She had been so focussed before that she hadn’t even bothered to look at them.

The door had the number one painted on it, and the thing on her arm had the same number. Interesting… but not important. Luke was her priority.

Flora and Luke escaped the room at the same time. Flora could have easily escaped a lot sooner, but she couldn’t leave him behind. They were almost in sync with each other. They both took off running down the corridor to the door, opened it, noticed the huge wave and kept running all the way to A Deck where they found that they weren’t the only ones there.

Flora wasn’t as surprised as Luke, since she had been given information prior to starting the game. However, it didn’t mean that Flora didn’t eye them all suspiciously.

Most of them were girls. The one who stood out to Flora the most was the girl with pink hair. She was the first to speak.

“Who are you?”

“Oh, uh.” Flora was taken aback by the young girl’s confidence. She couldn’t be older than 10. “I’m Flora. And who are _you?”_

“Clover. My brother’s stuck on the ship.”

“Mine too.” She knew Luke wasn’t really her brother, but there was no time to waste explaining it. “Who are the rest of you?”

They all introduced themselves in turn. Hikaru, Iris, River, Neptune, Noel, Yuki, and Ennea.

“Everyone, show me your bracelets.” Clover was back to talking almost as soon as the group was finished speaking.

Everyone stuck out their arms apart from Flora. She didn’t want to trust her so easily.

“Why?”

“Bracelet. Now. We don’t have time for this! Everyone’s already showed theirs.”

Flora rolled her eyes. She knew that more than anyone! She stuck her arm out anyway and Clover inspected it.

“A one. Hey, why do you get to be number one?”

Flora threw her head back in frustration. “It doesn’t matter! We have to save our brothers and sisters! It doesn’t matter what number we are!”

Clover smirked. “Oh, but it does. Weren’t you paying attention to Zero?”

Flora tried to ignore the bubbling anger inside her. She didn’t reply.

“Well, if you had been _listening,_ Zero said that we had to figure out digital roots. That meant only some people could go in certain doors. For example, me, Iris, Hikaru, and you can go through the number nine door because our digital root is 9. Do you understand?”

Flora tried her hardest to stay still and not slap this girl in the face. Of course, she understood. “Yes.”

“Great. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, are we gonna move or what? Time’s ticking.”

There were murmurs of agreement from the rest, and they followed Clover across the room. Flora balled her small hands into fists and walked over to join them.

* * *

“So Kenji, Aoi, Light, Akane, Jasmine, Robin, Akira, and Nona?” Luke pointed to everyone in turn.

“Yes,” Aoi nodded. “And you’re Luke.”

“Yep!” Luke went to grab the brim of his hat but stopped himself. He had left it at home.

He saw Akane looking at him quizzically, and he blushed. He hadn’t even been around people for two minutes and had ended up making a fool of himself.

“Um, anyway…” Aoi began after an awkward silence. “Everyone, show me your bracelets. We need to know the numbers, so we can get through the doors.”

“What doors?” Luke asked.

Aoi, along with a few others, pointed to the other end of the room where two huge metal doors stood. One was branded with a number 5 and another a 4.

“Oh, right.” Luke looked down at the ground again, furiously red. He was supposed to be smart. Why didn’t he know anything?!

Everyone held out their bracelets and Aoi studied them. He smiled. “Right. We can figure out who can go through the doors now. Follow me!”

The group followed Aoi to the two doors. Akane was holding Light by the arm to help guide him, despite him saying he was fine on his own.

“Anyone got any idea how to open these things then?”

Luke frowned. To him, it sounded like Aoi knew everything, so why didn’t he know about this? He looked like the oldest of the group so surely he should be able to figure this out on his own? Luke smiled to himself. He could figure this out in no time.

“Well, I don’t think we could open them by ourselves,” Kenji noticed. “They’re huge, and we’re only kids. There’s probably some way to open it without force.”

The others nodded in agreement. Luke was deep in thought.

“What are those circles next to the doors?”

“They look like some sort of scanners,” mumbled Akane. “Maybe our bracelets can do something.”

Aoi flashed a smile at her, impressed, and Akane feebly smiled back. Luke noticed none of this though. He was so determined to figure everything out first that he didn’t even notice that the rest of the group were progressing without him.

“So are our numbers important?” Nona spoke up clearly, despite being quiet before. She understood the consequences and wanted more than anything to save her sister.

“Maybe,” Aoi shrugged. “What do you think, blue boy?”

He had asked Luke a question, but he didn’t hear anything. He was too busy trying to solve this puzzle by himself.

Aoi chuckled. “I guess he doesn’t want to help, huh?”

“I’m sure he’s trying to figure this out on his own,” Light countered. Despite not being able to see Luke’s expression, he could tell from Luke’s politeness and determination that he wouldn’t refuse to help like Aoi was suggesting.

“Whatever,” Aoi huffed. There wasn’t time to worry about this kid. “Maybe this has something to do with the cards we used before in that cabin. Did you all have that too?”

The rest of the group murmured in agreement, apart from Luke, of course, who was now on the other side of the room.

“What about the digital root?” Akane asked. “That was how we got out of the first room, right?”

“Right,” Aoi smiled. “That could be it. Now, we just need to figure out how to open these.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> idk if i wrote clover too out of character here… i was going off of her personality in 999 and vlr from how i remember (being kinda annoying, aggressive, and she loves her brother a lot). she turns out to be the leader here at first bc she’s worried about her brother and wants to see him again and, i guess, she just ends up taking charge. i guess it’s also bc she’s the only character that we know about so i just went along with it. i kinda forgot she was only 9 though so idk if my portrayal of her is more like 18yo clover as opposed to 9yo clover. please tell me what you think!


	4. Chapter 4

Since figuring out what their bracelets did, the team on the passenger liner hadn’t made much progress. A bell had rung out while they were all thinking, indicating that they were running out of time. Aoi was complaining that it was Luke’s fault.

“He’s keeping all his thoughts to himself,” he was muttering to no one in particular.

No one seemed to pay attention as they were having their own discussions in groups.

Aoi was considering actually going over to try and talk to Luke when a few of the children gasped. Finally, Luke looked over along with Aoi. They both jogged over to Light, and soon all nine of them were together.

“What is it?” Aoi asked, exasperatedly. From the information the other team had passed onto them, they had wasted an hour just like them. Apparently, they had nine hours to get off this ship alive.

“I found a note in my pocket.” Light had begun to read the note when Aoi snatched it out of his grasp.

“Hey!” Luke finally spoke up. “That was given to Light. He should read it first!”

Aoi smirked. “Look, who’s finally sharing. Sorry, little boy, but we don’t have time for that.”

Light gave a small ‘hmph’ but didn’t protest.

“We’re the same age!” Luke didn’t know this for certain, but Aoi couldn’t be more than 16. He wasn’t letting a teenager boss him around when he was one himself, if only by less than a year.

Aoi rolled his eyes and didn’t answer. He was sure Luke was lying, but there was no use in indulging him. Luke scowled at Aoi as he tried to read the note. It turned out that this whole argument had been a waste of time.

“What the hell? I can’t read this.” Aoi shoved the note back into Light’s hands.

Akane was giggling. “Of course you can’t, Aoi. It’s in Braille.”

“Alright, smart ass.” He glared at his sister but failed to keep a straight face. He quickly turned to Light. “Light, read whatever the hell it says, so we can get out of here.”

“As you wish, Aoi,” Light smirked. Ignoring Aoi’s reaction, he cleared his throat and began to read.

_ Bracelet number 2, _

_ Since you are not blessed with sight, I will give you extra information. _

Luke heard Aoi mutter, “No fair,” and saw a couple of other children shake their heads in disappointment, but Light didn’t seem to notice.

_ I will tell you the function of the RED, the DEAD, and your bracelets. _

_ The RED is the Recognition Device. These are circular scanners beside each numbered door. You will need your bracelets to activate them, but not everyone can go through all the doors. The digital root concept which you learned earlier should help you with this. _

_ The DEAD is the Deactivation Device. Once you passed each door, there will be an identical scanner on the inside. Everyone who has entered this door has to scan their bracelets on the DEAD. This is to stop the detonator in our bracelets. _

“Detonator?” Everyone began to whisper to themselves. What could that mean?

Only Light seemed to remain calm. “I haven’t finished. Please would you let me continue?”

They all muttered a “sorry”, including Aoi to Luke’s surprise.

_ I suppose you are wondering about this detonator. Well, I will tell you but it will come as a surprise, I should think. I have placed a small bomb inside you and the people whom you are about to meet. _

The girls squeaked in fright and Luke felt chills run down his spine. This was a lot more dangerous than he first thought. He was shocked to see that Light’s voice hadn’t even changed tone throughout any of this.

_ You swallowed it while you were unconscious. I assume that by this time, it has passed your stomach and made its home in your small intestine. So you will not be able to regurgitate it. I suggest you don’t try. _

_ The detonator is contained in your bracelet. There is only one condition which will cause it to detonate. That will be when you enter a numbered door. It will be open for 9 seconds, then you will have 81 seconds after the doors close to stop the detonator. If all who have verified at the RED scan their bracelets on the DEAD, the timer will stop. _

_ If you go into a numbered door without verifying, I’m afraid that there is nothing you can do and the detonator will go off inside you. _

Luke suddenly felt light-headed. He stumbled slightly, but Aoi steadied him since he was the closest. They made eye contact for a second then they both looked away just as quickly. Aoi glanced over to Akane who was holding onto Light’s arm. She had grabbed it after Light mentioned the small bomb. It seemed she wasn’t taking it well either. Luke was grateful that he wasn’t the only one.

_ Lastly, I will tell you how to remove your bracelet. It will only come off in two conditions. Either you escape from this ship or your heart rate reaches zero. There is no other way to remove the bracelet. If you try to force it off or to disable the detonator, the bomb will immediately explode. _

_ This is all the information that I can tell you. _

A collective sigh of relief seemed to radiate within the group. Of course, they all knew that the danger wasn’t over with the ending of the letter, but at least they won’t be bombarded with frightening imagery anymore. Some of the other children, like Luke, had felt faint too at the descriptions, so they were happy for that to be over.

_ How you choose to use it is for you to decide. If used wisely, you could eliminate those who pose as a danger to you. With this, you will be able to control your fate. _

“That’s horrible!” Luke blurted out. “Who does this guy think he is telling kids to kill each other!”

For once, Aoi agreed with him. There were some murmurs of agreement behind them both.

_ I wish you the best of luck. _

Light fell silent and put the card back in his pocket. Despite the interruptions throughout the letter, the rest fell silent too. It was hard to know what to say after everything that had just been told to them.

Aoi stepped forward and gave Light a smile. “Uh, thanks for telling us this. You could’ve kept that a secret and let us all die.”

Light chuckled. “I do know that, but I would never have kept such a secret from everyone. We’re supposed to work as a team after all.”

He was right. Luke suddenly felt ashamed of trying to work everything out by himself earlier. Akane smiled up at Light and finally let go of his arm.

“You alright, Akane?” Aoi asked.

“Yeah,” she nodded. “It was just… a lot to take in. I felt like I was gonna faint.”

“So, uh, are we gonna tell the other team or what?” Kenji spoke up after the group fell silent again. “We don’t know if they have this information.”

Light nodded. “That is a good point. There could be another blind person on the other team who has a note like mine, but we cannot assume that.”

“But aren’t we all receivers?” Kenji screwed up his face in thought. “River has only ever been able to contact me since we got here.”

“Correct again. I’m not sure how this will work.”

The group began to think again, and Luke looked around, confused. How could they all know what he was talking about? It was as if they already knew about their powers before they got here. Luke, on the other hand, had no idea what they were talking about. What was a receiver? Did that mean he could only receive messages as well? He frowned. He was talking with Flora earlier quite easily. Did that mean he was… different?

“Uh, guys?”

Aoi looked up with a frown. “What is it, blue boy?”

Luke tried not to take offence at this new nickname and continued to speak. “By receiver, do you mean that you can’t, like, talk to your siblings in your head?”

It seemed like everyone was looking at him as if he was talking gibberish.

“Uh, never mind.” Luke looked towards the ground, hoping that no one could see his burning face.

“So you can transmit as well?” Light asked. “That could prove to be useful here.”

“Really?” 

“Of course.”

Luke looked up to see Light smiling. He couldn’t help but smile back. Maybe he could be useful after all!

“But… I don’t know how to do it,” Luke admitted.

“You have to try! We have no other choice!” Nona called out from behind him. It seemed she was on the verge of tears.

Luke sighed once more. He couldn’t say no to that. “Fine. I’ll try. Just give me a minute, okay?”

He walked off towards the stairs and could feel eight pairs of eyes burning into him. However, when he turned back around again, no one seemed to be paying attention to him.

He took a deep breath. You’re just being paranoid, he told himself. You just have to concentrate on this.

_ Flora, please. Can you hear me? _

Nothing. The longer he tried, the more panicked he felt. This couldn’t be the end already! They’d barely got started!

_ Flora! I need you to answer me! _

_ Luke? _

Luke almost jumped out of his skin. He didn’t expect Flora to answer at all. He turned towards the rest of the group and gave them a thumbs up. Akira and Nona jumped up and down happily, trying not to burst into tears. Light and Aoi gave him a thumbs up.

_ Flora! We found some really important stuff out! _


	5. Chapter 5

“Flora? Are you okay?” Noel was the closest to Flora when she suddenly stopped in her tracks and screwed up her face in confusion.

She blinked a few times before she acknowledged someone had spoken to her. “Oh, sorry. Luke is just talking to me. He says that he has some new information, but I don’t get it. We’re the ones who are supposed to find things out for them.”

Noel nodded. “And we’re supposed to be the only ones who can transmit information. Your brother is only supposed to receive.”

Flora frowned. “But we were talking earlier in the cabin. Just like we were reading each other’s minds.”

“That’s not how it’s supposed to work!”

A few heads turned after that exclamation towards the two of them. Flora bowed her head in embarrassment and tried to block them out. Luke seemed excited to tell her something, so she wanted to listen.

Her eyes grew wider with each sentence, not quite believing what she heard. They all had bombs inside them?! 

“I know how the scanners work!” Flora blurted out to eight confused faces.

“How? We’re supposed to know everything,” Clover said.

“Yes,  _ I know.  _ Noel’s already told me that. I don’t need everyone repeating themselves.”

Clover’s eyes widened. “Jeez. No need to be like that. Just tell us, already.”

Despite Flora’s irritation, she relayed the information as quickly as possible. She had hoped that this would save scaring the others. It turned out though that she had to repeat herself a few times and was told to slow down, so in the end, she had somehow made it worse. The group seemed even more scared as the team on the ship had been.

Some felt faint, some burst into tears, and some stood in shock. Even Clover had covered her face and was shaking. Flora felt bile rise up in her throat as she got to the part about the bomb, but she stood strong. She was the oldest in the group by far, so she had to be the one to stay calm. Even Clover was on the verge of tears, despite her confident, and slightly arrogant, appearance earlier. Flora almost felt sorry for her. She was only a child regardless of how she acted.

When Flora had finished speaking, a deadly silence filled the air. She couldn’t look anyone in the eye. She was supposed to be the oldest, and here she was not even being able to take charge. Even a nine year old was a better leader than her!

Flora started to cry. She tried to hide it from the others at first but, of course, they noticed her. She felt Noel’s hand on her shoulder, and she shrugged it off. Eventually, the eyes she could feel staring at her were too much to bear, and she ran off. She ran all the way down the stairs until she couldn’t go any further. It seemed the whole of D Deck was underwater.

Flora frowned. Why had it stopped rising? She remembered a huge wave chasing after her when she escaped the cabin, and she was certain the water had been rising as she ran up the stairs. Unless it was just her imagination getting the better of her. She giggled through her tears. The professor always said she had an active imagination.

Flora was so busy wrapped up in her own thoughts that she didn’t hear notice someone sit down beside her.

“Hi. Are you okay?”

Flora jumped and looked around. Iris had come to check on her. Flora blushed and looked away. She wished she could’ve been left alone.

“I’m fine,” she said.

Iris smiled. “You don’t look it.”

She sighed. It seemed there was no point in hiding anything from an esper of all people. “I just feel useless. You could all get on fine without me if I wasn’t here.”

Iris frowned. She reached out to touch Flora but pulled back. They barely knew each other. She didn’t want to risk hurting Flora’s feelings. “That’s not true. We wouldn’t have known about the bombs if it wasn’t for you.”

Flora laughed. It wasn’t her normal giggle. It sounded hollow. She didn’t know how to feel about that. “Luke was the one who told me though. I had nothing to do with it.”

“From what I know, only siblings can communicate with each other in the morphogenetic field. He wouldn’t have been able to contact anyone else here. So you are important.”

Flora didn’t want to believe it, but she began to smile. She finally looked Iris in the face. “Um, I guess you’re right.”

Iris beamed. She was happy that she could help. She had been quiet ever since Flora arrived, but she was glad that she could do something to help here. Iris wouldn’t admit it, but she had been feeling the same as Flora. Maybe she should take her own advice sometimes.

“It sometimes happens,” Iris giggled. “Anyway, we should go back. They’re probably waiting for us, and you know-”

“That we don’t have time. Got it. It’s the only thing Clover talks about, I swear.” Flora had tried not to revert back to her negativity, but it was difficult when the leader of their group was so  _ annoying! _

“Yes, she does talk a lot,” Iris agreed. “But she’s still a kid, you know. I think she’s the youngest here.”

Flora sighed. “I guess so. And I’m pretty sure I’m the oldest. I don’t get why I can’t be as confident as she can.”

Iris shook her head. “That doesn’t matter. As long as we all do our bit, we can get out of here. That’s the most important thing.”

Flora smiled once again. “Yeah, you’re right. How old are you, by the way? You seem a lot wiser than everyone else here.”

Iris looked away for a minute, blushing. She had never been called wise before. “I’m sixteen. I know… I look way younger, but I promise I’m sixteen.”

That came as a welcome surprise. Flora had felt slightly alienated since she arrived here. All the children she had met seemed not much older than twelve. That wasn’t a bad thing, of course, but being eighteen herself, she felt like she didn’t have anyone to really talk to. Maybe that would change.

Flora nodded and left it at that. After confessing about her insecurities, she didn’t want to add on to that by admitting she was lonely too. She didn’t want to scare her only potential friend away.

The two girls decided to head back up to A Deck. 

The others awkwardly smiled at them as they both reached the top of the stairs. Iris grinned whereas Flora smiled weakly in return. They had already seemed to be in their respective groups. Another sign that they don’t need me, Flora thought bitterly.

Despite having that talk with Iris, those negative thoughts came flooding back again. What if Iris was just being nice and only telling Flora what she wanted to hear?

“We’ve told the other team, so you don’t need to transmit to your brother. I’m sure the rest of them have told him.”

“Thanks,” she muttered.

Iris glanced at Flora worriedly but kept quiet. She didn’t want to push her luck with someone she’d only just met.

“You’re with Clover’s group,” Neptune spoke up. It seemed that Clover was still in shock, and no one else seemed to want to talk. “And, Iris, you’re with us.”

The two nodded and walked away from each other. Flora had desperately wanted to stay with Iris, but she knew she couldn’t argue. There must be other combinations that would work, but she didn’t want to cause any more trouble.

Flora silently joined her group and the two teams stood awkwardly for a moment, not knowing what to do.

“Um, shall we go then?” Yuki’s small voice cut through the silence. It was the first time she had spoken since they all introduced themselves so it was a surprise to the rest. She seemed to be one of the first to recover from the unwelcome news, as well as Iris and Neptune. Flora felt jealousy rise up in her chest. Why couldn’t she be like them?

“Sure,” Ennea said, her voice only slightly louder.

The nine of them scanned their bracelets in silence and the large metal doors opened in front of them. The sound of both doors opening at the same time was deafening and most of the kids covered their ears. With a final nod from a few of them, they all stepped through the doors. After nine seconds had passed, both doors closed with a slam. 

The next sound they were greeted with was the incessant beeping of their bracelets.

“Let’s find the DEAD then.” Flora’s voice was shaking, but the feeling of shame from earlier was still present. They didn’t need her to say that. It was obvious what they had to do. They didn’t really need her at all. Why was she even here? What was the point in all of this?

Her thoughts were interrupted by Clover grabbing her wrist and trying to drag her down the hallway. 

“Come  _ on!  _ Move it!”

Hearing Clover shout like that brought some part of Flora back to reality. She took to a run without even thinking, if only so they didn’t explode into pieces. She was still wallowing in her despair when Clover moved Flora’s hand onto the DEAD scanner that was to the left of the double doors.

The beeping finally stopped, but Flora didn’t even notice.

“Do you  _ want  _ to get us killed?!” Clover’s shrill voice brought Flora back to reality.

She blinked a few times and looked down to Clover, who was snarling at her. Flora bit back a laugh. It seemed Clover was back to her normal self.

“No,” Flora muttered, pulling her hand away to cross her arms.

“Exactly. So let’s get going then!”

Flora had no choice but to follow her and the rest of the group back down the hallway to search the doors they had run past.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> there are mild spoilers for professor layton and pandora’s box and lost/unwound future in this chapter so i have updated the tags. just to warn you if you haven’t played those games yet

Hershel’s eyelids felt heavy, and he had trouble keeping them open, despite daylight streaming through the thin curtains.

As he opened his eyes, he saw an unfamiliar ceiling. He frowned. This didn’t look much like his office. He sat up and looked around the room. Yet more unfamiliarity. Where was he?

And then he remembered. Of course! He had flown to visit Luke, Clark, and Brenda along with Flora.

So then where was she? He was finding it difficult to remember what had happened in the past few hours, but he was certain that Flora was supposed to be with him.

He checked the time on his pocket watch, after he remembered he had left it on the coffee table in front of him. It was almost 11am. This wasn’t unusual for him to have a lie-in, but why weren’t Clark and Brenda awake? He knew that they tended to wake up a lot earlier than him.

He slowly got up from his mattress and made his way to Clark and Brenda’s bedroom. He felt guilty knocking and disturbing their sleep, but he couldn’t sit with his thoughts for much longer. Having a gap in his memory troubled him.

“Clark? Brenda?”

There were a few seconds pause before Clark spoke. “Hershel?”

Hershel was confused. It sounded as if Clark had forgotten he was staying with them.

“Yes. It’s me.” 

He didn’t know how to explain himself just yet, so he waited for them both to meet him in the sitting room.

Clark frowned when he saw Hershel’s expression. “Is there something wrong?”

Hershel hesitated before continuing. “Flora and I came together to visit you and Luke, correct?”

They both had to think for a moment. “Oh, yes. I remember. Of course, you did!” Brenda smiled. “I assume she’s tired out?”

Hershel shook his head. “If she had slept in the sitting room also, which I am almost certain she did, then she isn’t there. I don’t know where she could’ve gone.”

“Perhaps she is with Luke in his room.”

Brenda and Hershel waited while Clark went to check. All three of them were becoming considerably more worried about the children. However, it seemed that only Hershel seemed to notice the temporary memory loss.

“Neither of them are there. Where could they have got to?”

No one could come up with an answer. Hershel had thought of a possibility, but he didn’t dare say it aloud. The first day that Hershel brings Flora to a foreign country, and she gets kidnapped. If that were to be true, Hershel would never be able to forgive himself.

“Got any ideas, old friend?” Clark asked. He, too, had thought of the same possibility. It was just a case of who was brave enough to say it.

Before Hershel could speak, Brenda cut in. “Do you think… perhaps…”

“Someone has taken them?” Hershel suggested, glad that Brenda had broached the topic before him.

Brenda nodded.

The three of them stood with their heads hung low. How could they have been so careless? Why didn’t they hear anyone come in? Did they miss Luke and Flora’s cries for help? Or were they silenced in some way?

Clark shivered. It was no use speculating, but it was hard not to let his mind get carried away with these things.

“I say we give it an hour and if they don’t return, we file a police report. How’s that?”

Hershel was grateful that Clark could take the lead this time. He didn’t quite feel up to it.

“Yes. That sounds like a plan.” Brenda looked as if all the happiness had been sucked out of her. Hershel only watched as Clark embraced her. He felt as if he had failed them. Luke wasn’t his son, but the Tritons had always trusted him to take care of Luke on their adventures together. Hershel had succeeded in the past, but he knew that it would only be a matter of time before something went wrong. It always was.

Clark excused himself to make breakfast for them all, but Brenda stayed behind. She was watching Hershel closely. He hadn’t moved a muscle since Brenda and Clark had hugged. 

“Are you alright, Hershel?”

“Yes, I’m fine, Brenda.”

They both knew that this was a lie, however, as tears were already falling down his cheeks as he spoke. As well as feeling he had failed Luke and his parents, he also felt perhaps even guiltier for letting Flora be kidnapped. It was hard to think of it as only a possibility as time ticked away from them. It was slowly becoming a reality.

How many times had Flora been kidnapped now? And how often had Hershel left her alone in London to fend for herself? When she came with him back to London from St Mystere, he had promised himself that he would try his best to be a good father to her. But time and time again, he hadn’t lived up to his promises, and Flora could see that. No wonder she was angry at him every time Luke and Hershel went on an adventure without her. No wonder she tried to disguise herself and follow them onto the Molentary Express.

He was too busy wrapped up in his thoughts that he hadn’t realised that Brenda was hugging him. As he slowly came back to reality, he held her. Hershel sighed. Of course, he was grateful for Brenda, but what would she think of him if she knew how many times he had let this happen before to Flora?

“This isn’t your fault, Hershel. I promise. Please don’t beat yourself up for this.”

Brenda knew her friend all too well. She knew how hard he was on himself, even over the smallest things.

“Of course.” Hershel didn’t believe what he was saying, but he didn’t want Brenda to worry about him any longer. There were more important issues to face than his emotions.

The Tritons and Hershel ate breakfast, although no one was very hungry, and waited for any sign of Luke and Flora. 

Hershel couldn’t sit still. He got up several times to pace and more than once, he went into Luke’s room to search for any clues.

He knew that he shouldn’t be in there as this was Luke’s private space, but he couldn’t stop thinking that maybe there would be some clue as to where he might have gone. He came up empty-handed both times.

With a sigh, he returned to the sitting room and sat in between Clark and Brenda once again.

“Didn’t find anything?” Clark asked, defeat clear on his face.

Hershel shook his head, and Clark turned away. 

Neither of them spoke for a long while until an hour had passed. Not long after, Clark proposed they all went down to the police station to file reports for Luke and Flora.

Fortunately, it was close enough to their apartment for them to walk. They made it there in no time.

The three of them walked to the front desk, Clark taking the lead. 

“Good afternoon, ma’am. We’d like to report two missing people.”

The receptionist took out a clipboard and nodded. “Of course. We’ll just need a few details.”

Clark, along with Brenda, gave the woman the necessary details for Luke, and Hershel gave the details for Flora. He couldn’t help but notice, however, that the receptionist glanced up a few times.

As she finished writing both reports, she looked up from her papers and Hershel realised she had been looking at him.

“I’m sorry, but I think I know you from somewhere.”

“Oh, this is Professor Hershel Layton,” Brenda said once she figured that Hershel was too surprised to answer. “He’s quite famous in London.”

Hershel turned scarlet as the woman looked at him again. “I do recognise the name. You’ve helped solve cases with the police a few times, yes?”

“Yes,” Hershel muttered. He had been recognised before in public, but he never thought that anyone outside of England would know him.

She smiled. “Then you might be some help. Some of our team are putting together a rescue plan.”

Hershel’s heart lifted slightly as he heard that. There might be some hope. “That’s wonderful. Is there any chance I could speak to any of them?” He knew he was being forward, but he was desperate to find Luke and Flora. He couldn’t sit by and do nothing.

“Well, Officer Akiyama is leading this case, so he might be the best man to speak to. He very busy at the moment though, so you may have to come back later.”

Hershel suddenly felt deflated. “Right. Of course.”

Brenda, noticing this, took Hershel’s arm. “Well, I think we’ll get out of your hair. When do you think Officer Akiyama will be free?”

“Oh, I’m not quite sure. I think he’s scheduled for a break in a few hours so come back then. Let’s say 5pm?”

Four hours. Hershel didn’t know if he could wait that long, but he knew that there was nothing else he could do. Clark and Brenda exchanged worried looks.

Clark cleared his throat awkwardly as he realised the receptionist was waiting for an answer. “Yes, that would be fine. Thank you for all your help.”

“It’s no problem,” she smiled. “I hope they return soon.”

“Yes. We hope so too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is just a disclaimer (i guess), but i’m pretty sure that you have to wait 24 hours to file a missing persons report (correct me if I’m wrong) so this chapter isn’t very accurate. however, with how things play out later on, it wouldn’t work out if hershel and the tritons had waited a whole day to go to the police station. you’ll see what i mean later on in the story haha, unless you’ve already figured it out from what happens in zero escape 999


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter turned out to be longer than the rest so far, but i still hope you enjoy it! i like writing about these four together

“Is everyone happy with splitting up like this?” Light asked, once the team in Building Q had transmitted their groupings.

“What’s the point in asking?” Aoi huffed. “We have to go in the same groups anyway.”

Light shrugged, unaffected by his attitude. “We could find a way around it if someone is desperate to swap.”

It looked as if that was the case. Akane was crying.

Aoi was by her side immediately, his arm around her shoulders. Luke was shocked at this sudden change in behaviour. He could’ve easily bet that Aoi wasn’t capable of caring about anyone but himself.

“Hey. Don’t cry. I’m sure we will meet back up soon. I mean, we have to if Zero wants us to escape through the nine door. We can’t do that unless we’re all there at the end.”

Akane looked up into her brother’s eyes. Whatever she saw in them made her smile. “You’re right. We will see each other again.”

“Yeah! So don’t cry, okay? We’ll only be apart for a short time, and if you need to talk to me, you can just access the morphogenetic field.”

She giggled. “I forgot about that. Then I’ll talk to you the whole time! You’ll have to make me shut up!”

Aoi laughed. “Oh god, I shouldn’t have said anything. Well, it’s good that you’re not crying anymore.” He used his thumb to wipe away her drying tears and then stood up. He was positively beaming.

“Well, let’s go then! Come on, we can’t stand around all day!”

Luke suppressed an eye roll. He had been the one holding them up! He did think it was sweet though how much he clearly cared about his sister…

“Luke? Aren’t you coming with us?”

“Oh.” He snapped out of his thoughts and realised the rest of the group had already scanned their bracelets. His cheeks flared red, and he tried to avoid eye contact with the others as he walked up to the scanner.

The team in Building Q had informed them of where the DEAD was, so they had no trouble finding it. Luke felt grateful for that. 81 seconds wasn’t a very long time after all.

“Damn, this door’s locked,” Aoi groaned after he had given up trying to force the door open.

“What’s this symbol above the keyhole?” Nona peered at it after Aoi had moved out of the way.

“I doubt that matters,” Light said. “All we need is the key for it, right?”

Nona shrugged. “I guess so. Why don’t we check those other doors?”

After trying all the doors down the corridor, they realised that only the two that were nearest the oak doors opened. The plaques above read B92 and B93.

“I guess we should split up,” Light said after Luke read the numbers aloud. “Luke, do you want to come with me?”

Luke faltered for a moment. He assumed the pairings would be random. He didn’t expect to be asked like this, and so quickly. He was quite flattered, to tell the truth.

“Uh, sure.” He finally managed to get out a response, then turned Aoi and Nona. “Is that okay with you two?”

“Sure.” Nona smiled at Aoi while he gave a curt nod. It seemed he was back to his usual self.

“Shout if you find anything,” Light smiled before turning to walk into the room labelled B92. Luke quickly followed.

The room Luke and Light entered looked like a cabin, but it looked a lot posher than the one they all woke up in on D Deck.

“Do you, uh…” Luke could see Light feeling his way around the room. The gentlemanly part of him wanted to assist, but he wasn’t sure if Light would approve of that. From what Luke had noticed, Light was very independent.

“I’m fine, Luke. Feel free to search around yourself. I’m sure you’ll be able to find things that I can’t.”

Luke nodded and then remembered Light wouldn’t be able to see so followed it up with a “sure”.

They mostly worked in silence which suited both of them. Luke wouldn’t have minded being able to chat with Light, but he knew that they both needed to concentrate.

There was a weird-looking picture on the wall to the left of the door. It was a white background with black splodges on it. Luke stared at it for a while, trying to figure out if it meant anything.

“It looks a little like a dog…” Luke was muttering to himself. He laughed. Being the animal lover that he was, of course, he would see a dog. However, it looked like one of those pictures where there was no right answer.

“Come to think of it, this reminds me of a puzzle the professor told me once.”

Light frowned. He had been searching in the lounge area when he heard Luke talking to himself. What was this about a puzzle?

“A puzzle? What on earth are you looking at?”

“Ah!” Luke whirled around, not expecting Light to talk back to him. He was grateful that Light wouldn’t see him blushing. “It was nothing. Uh, my friend just loves puzzles, you see, and-”

“Do you think we have time for puzzles right now?”

Luke looked away, almost ashamed. “Sorry, Light. I wasn’t actually going to try and solve it or anything.”

Light nodded. “Good. We don’t have time for that. Keep searching, alright?”

“Okay.” Luke had been worried that Light would tell him off, but it seemed that he was just eager to escape. Luke breathed a sigh of relief. He really wanted Light to like him for reasons he couldn’t quite figure out for himself, so he was happy to know that Light didn’t hate him quite yet.

Luke was looking along the wall for, perhaps, a hidden message or the like when he saw that Light had picked up a box of matches.

“Thought they might be useful,” Light shrugged as if he could sense Luke looking at him. “How about you hold onto these? They could be useful somewhere else.”

“Uh, sure.”

Light threw them over to Luke with surprisingly good aim. Luke caught the box with ease and pocketed it.

“Have you checked that door over there?” Luke asked, pointing out of habit.

“The one next to the display cabinet?”

“Yeah.”

“No, but I was going to. I wanted to see if there was anything else important in this first area before I moved on.”

Luke nodded. That was smart of him. “Well,” he said. “How about you check that room and I check the bathroom just to the left of the door we came through?”

“Alright.”

Checking around the small bathroom didn’t turn up anything useful. He even checked the toilet and the tank connected to it to no avail. There was a very colourful wall though.

Light didn’t seem to be successful either. He informed Luke that he had checked everywhere, and yet he didn’t find a thing.

Luke pouted. It didn’t seem like they were getting very far in this room. He hoped that Aoi and Nona were having better luck.

The last thing to find was a key stored in the dresser. There were no other keyholes in the room apart from the in the dresser drawer itself. There didn’t seem to be anything else that would be useful. They were stumped.

“So, uh,” Luke began, awkwardly. “What do we do now?”

Light put a hand up to his chin. “I’m not sure. Are you sure we’ve checked everywhere?”

“Yeah.”

The two of them fell quiet, trying to think of what their next step would be when-

_ The two rooms are connected! You need to use the things you found in room B92 to progress in room B93! _

Luke looked up in surprise. Despite knowing that he and Flora were linked through the morphogenetic field, it was still a shock sometimes when she spoke to him. It seemed Light had been given the same message too. He looked up at the same time as Luke with a smile.

“I assume your sister has also told you?”

Luke nodded. “Flora told me, yeah. We need to go in the other room.”

“I’m sure Clover told her first to tell you. She’s pretty smart for a little kid.”

Luke raised an eyebrow. What was he implying? “Flora’s smart too, you know. She probably figured it out first.”

Light shook his head. “I highly doubt that.”

Luke started laughing at how silly they both sounded. Arguing over which sister was smarter! “Alright, alright. Whatever. Whoever told us first, I have to follow their advice and go into the other room.”

Light chuckled. “I’ll wait here, shall I? Maybe there was something we missed. I will come over if I find anything and give it to you.”

“Thank you. I’ll be back soon.”

Luke shut the door behind him and walked across the short width of the hallway. He could hear the voices of Aoi and Nona inside. 

“We’re getting nowhere! This stupid cabinet is locked, and we can’t even see into the next room! This is all pointless!” 

Luke bit back a grin as he opened the door to Aoi’s shouting. Nona was sitting on the couch, scowling, and deliberately not making eye contact with him.

“Hey, guys. Uh, how’s it going in here?” Luke started, knowing the answer already.

“What do you think? We’re making zero progress.” He chuckled at his own joke.

Luke sighed to himself and turned away. It seemed like he’d have to do this himself.

He noticed that there was yet another frame on the wall, but the pieces were all missing but one. He said this aloud, hoping one of his team would be cooperative enough to answer him.

“Yeah, we know. Aoi was grumbling about one piece being locked away in that cabinet.” Nona pointed to the glass cabinet that Aoi was leaning against.

Luke thought for a moment and then remembered he had found a key in the other room.

“Aoi. Sorry, but could you-?”

Without even waiting for Luke to finish his answer, Aoi huffed and moved away from the cabinet. Luke fished the key from his pocket and tried the key. Nothing. 

Luke sighed. “Sorry. It didn’t work.”

Aoi rolled his eyes. “Great. That’s just great.”

“Hey!” Nona finally turned to face Aoi. “Don’t blame Luke for this! He was only trying to help!”

“Whatever, lady.”

Luke tried his best to keep calm, no matter how aggravating the two of them arguing was. There must be something else that would open this cabinet otherwise why would there be something important there?

Aoi was looking at Luke as he closed the cabinet door and noticed something else in his pocket.

“What’s that?” Aoi pointed to the square shaped lump in Luke’s shorts pocket.

“Oh, this? Just some matches.”

Aoi’s eyes lit up and Luke stepped back in surprise.

“We could use those to light the candle, so we can see what’s in that damn room!”

“Oh…” Luke was hoping for something more exciting than that. “Alright.”

Aoi scowled at Luke’s lack of enthusiasm and snatched the box from his hand. He struck a match with ease and lit the candle. 

Luke pouted. “I wanted to do that.”

Aoi smirked. “Sorry, but kids aren’t allowed to play with matches.”

Luke threw his arms out in frustration. “I’m thirteen! Not much younger than you probably!”

Aoi looked at him, confused. “Are you sure? You’re a little short for a teenager, aren’t you?”

“Yes! And what of it?”

The two boys continued to argue until Nona turned to glare at them. They both immediately fell quiet.

“I’ll go, um… I’ll go look in the bedroom then,” Aoi mumbled, awkwardly shuffling away from Luke.

“Okay,” Luke said, looking down at his feet.

As Aoi searched, Luke and Nona stayed silent. There wasn’t really much to talk about since they were still strangers, despite everything that had happened so far.

“Anything in the bathroom?” Luke asked, desperate to break the silence.

“No,” she shook her head. “Nothing I could see anyway.”

“Great.”

Luke never thought he would be grateful to see Aoi return from his searching. He was smirking.

“What?” Nona sighed. “Found something, have you?”

“Yep! I think the candleholder is the key to the cabinet. I found a shower curtain too. One of you could put it up in the bathroom and see what it does.”

Luke and Nona both shared a confused look. Neither of them saw what good that would do, but they guessed there was no harm in trying.

“I’ll do it.” Nona got up from the couch and took it from Aoi, not without glaring at him before she turned away.

“Luke, can you give me that key you used before on the cabinet? I think I can use it in here.”

“Oh, sure. I can use the candleholder while you’re doing that.” 

Aoi nodded and they swapped keys. The candleholder fit into the keyhole perfectly, and they were finally able to access the missing piece to that picture on the wall.

Both boys called out to each other at the same time. It seemed like they had both found something.

“What?” Luke said as Aoi came back into the lounge area.

“I found another piece of that picture.”

“Me too!” Luke grinned.

Aoi couldn’t help but smile back. “I don’t wanna admit it, but we do make a good team sometimes.”

“I guess we do,” Luke chuckled. He still had to get used to Aoi’s caring side, but it was getting a little easier each time.

They soon realised that, even with their two new pieces, there was still one missing.

“Damn it! We were so close!” Aoi seemed to be taking this very seriously.

“There must be another piece somewhere else. We just have keep looking.”

Aoi shrugged. “I guess you’re right.” He knocked on the bathroom door despite it being open. “Nona? Found anything?”

“This curtain has a hole in it, but I don’t know if it’s important,” she said, still staring at it. “The hole is focussed on a specific tile, but nothing happens when I press it.”

Luke gasped, putting the pieces together. “It must be in the other room. I’ll be right back!”

“Right.”

Luke quickly returned to B92 where Light had retired onto the sofa.

“Light! I’ve figured something out. I just have to go to the bathroom, okay?”

Light wasn’t sure why Luke had gone into detail about this, but he nodded. “Alright. I hope you find something useful.”

Luke went straight into the bathroom to inspect the tile. He chuckled to himself as he heard Flora’s voice in his head.

_ Luke, the tile in B93 that’s shown through the shower curtain corresponds to the same tile in B92! _

_ I already figured that out on my own! Before you, in fact! _

Luke knew that there was no time to feel smug about this, but he couldn’t help it. His team were supposed to be the ones with limited information, but he ended up figuring it out before Flora’s team! The professor would tell him not to gloat, especially in front of a lady, but he wasn’t here right now. Luke could feel however he wanted.

He pressed the tile that Nona had seen through the hole in the curtain. It didn’t do anything.

Luke groaned. The one thing he was stuck on Flora couldn’t help him with! It was just his luck.

He decided he would have better luck with his teammate. “Light!” 

“What is it, Luke?” He joined Luke in the bathroom.

“This tile is supposed to do something, but I’m pressing it and nothing’s happening.”

Light smirked. “I’m sure you can figure this out for yourself.”

“But I did all the work in the other room!”

He laughed, imagining Luke pouting at him, and walked towards the wall. “Which tile is it again?”

Luke guided Light’s hand to where Nona had seen the tile. Light felt around the edges. “It doesn’t seem to be connected as well as the other tiles. I’ll see if I can prise it off.”

Luke waited while Light tried to get the tile off. It came off easily in his hand.

Light handed Luke the tile. “There you go. Is there a specific pattern on it at all, like that picture you described earlier?”

Luke turned the tile over and gasped. “You’re right. It fits in the frame next door. Thanks, Light!”

He shook his head, a slight blush appearing on his cheeks. “There’s no need to thank me, Luke. I’m just happy to be of some help.”

“Well, I’ll be going next door then.”

“I’ll be waiting here.”

Luke returned to the other room where Aoi and Nona were holding a piece each of the picture.

“Right. So we just need to fit this all in and make sure all the pieces are in the right places,” Aoi said. 

Luke nodded. “There’s a framed picture next door, so I assume that they’re supposed to be the same.”

Aoi and Nona nodded. 

“I suppose we should give you these then,” Nona smiled, handing her piece to Luke. Aoi followed suit.

Luke easily fitted all three pieces into the frame after some rearranging, and Nona cheered.

“Awesome! Good job, Luke!”

Aoi sighed. He had to admit that Luke had done most of the work here. “Yeah, uh, thanks, Luke.”

Luke was surprised that Aoi had thanked him as well. He tried not to let that show. “Um, thanks.”

Before any of them could speak further, the picture dropped down to show a hole in the wall with a very special key inside. Aoi, being the tallest, reached into the hole to get it out.

“Awesome! That’s the key we need for the door!”

Luke and Nona grinned at each other, happy that they could finally progress.

Luke, however, was still curious about the picture. Was it really a dog or was that just his imagination? Surely, it could be anything. More importantly, why was no one else interested in the picture? It could be important!

Before he could ponder any more on these mysteries, Aoi had already left the room, presumably to find Light and get out of here.

“Come on. We should go. There’s nothing else left in here anyway,” Nona said, already halfway to the door.

Luke decided to follow her. The most important thing was to escape this place. They could worry about the finer details later.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i added a tag of referenced suicide, so be aware of that in this chapter. it may crop up in future chapters (i'm not sure yet), but it will only be implied. nothing more than mentioning it

“Only these two rooms open,” Ennea noticed once they’d checked all the doors. “B92 and B93.”

“So, how are we going to split up?” Clover asked, looking at each of them in turn.

Yuki seemed to shrink back from Clover’s gaze. Ennea made sure to look at anywhere but at her. It seemed that no one wanted to be paired with Clover.

Flora, noticing this, sighed. She’d have to take one for the team.

“I’ll go with Clover,” Flora said. “And Ennea and Yuki can go together.”

Clover shrugged. “Fine. We’ll search B92, and you two search B93.”

“Alright.”

They soon split up and were searching their respective rooms.

Flora decided to just get on with it. There was nothing she wanted to say to Clover anyway, and she knew that their conversations would just end in frustration. Clover seemed to feel the same as she got to searching a different part of the room.

Then, suddenly, she spoke up.

“Flora?”

She looked up in surprise. Was Clover really trying to talk to her? Flora considered ignoring her but decided to humour her. “What?”

“You… ran off earlier. What was all that about?”

Flora huffed, looking away. She stared at the abstract photo on the wall as she replied, wondering what it was. “It was nothing.”

“Are you sure? You looked really upset.”

Flora was determined not to look around, but… was that compassion she heard? No, it couldn’t be. “I’m fine, really.”

Despite her insistence, Clover continued. “And you almost didn’t even run with us to the DEAD. It was like you didn’t want to scan your bracelet or something. Like you wanted to-”

“Shut up! It’s none of your business!”

Clover gasped at Flora’s outburst. From what little she knew, Flora didn’t seem like the type of person to get angry. It shocked her.

Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes, and she quickly turned her head away from Flora’s piercing glare. “Whatever.”

They continued searching in silence. Flora was still seething. How dare Clover accuse her of wanting to die?! As if she knew what she was thinking! She let out a frustrated sigh. She acted like she knew  _ everything!  _

Clover tried to forget that Flora was mad at her. She really didn’t mean to upset her. She was just recalling what she had noticed. Flora had run off crying, and then acted depressed since then. That was all. Why was she so emotional about it anyway?

There were times when Clover had to interact with Flora. She found the map of the ship’s interior in the bedroom and the matches on the table. She awkwardly left them on the coffee table in the lounge area and coughed until Flora looked around to see them there.

Flora took them without a word. She had also found the key in the dresser’s drawer. 

Neither of them had contacted Light or Luke yet about what they had found, mostly because they assumed they were both smart enough to figure that out on their own. The next part though was a little trickier.

“There’s nothing else in here,” Flora muttered, mostly to herself.

“Mhm. So, what do we do?”

Flora didn’t answer. She thought for a moment. There must be a reason why there aren’t many useful things in this room. There must be more than just this.

“The other room!”

Flora and Clover had spoken at the same time. They looked at each other in surprise, and Clover began to laugh. Despite Flora still feeling animosity towards Clover, she started laughing too.

Once the girls had calmed down, Clover suggested that they tell their brothers just in case. Flora nodded. She still hadn’t told anyone that Luke wasn’t really her brother.

“Um,” Flora started, shuffling her feet, awkwardly. “I’ll go into the next room then, okay? I assume Luke will want to figure this out, so I want to help him.”

Clover nodded. “That makes sense. Since Light is blind, maybe it would be easier for Luke to go instead.”

Flora nodded, not quite expecting that answer but deciding not to question it. “Okay. See if you can find something we missed here.”

“Okay.”

Flora walked into the next room where Yuki and Ennea were. They both grinned when they saw her, but Flora could only offer a weak smile in response. She was completely drained after her argument with Clover.

She could see on their faces that they could tell something was up, but neither of them spoke. Maybe they didn’t want to pry. Flora was thankful of that. She wasn’t ready to open up to anyone else.

“I brought some things that might help us,” Flora said.

“That’s great!” Ennea smiled. Yuki nodded along with her. “What are they?”

“Well,” Flora started. “I have a key for something, and a box of matches. Clover has a map of the ship, but I’m guessing we’ll need to save that for later, so she kept it.”

Ennea nodded. “Let’s see what we can do with these.”

Working together, the three girls soon began to make progress. Since Flora was the oldest, she was the one to light the candle and search the bedroom. It seemed, however, that she wasn’t very good at lighting matches, and she had to throw one away. Neither Ennea and Yuki had seemed to noticed, but it didn’t stop Flora from feeling relieved when she finally started a flame. She was quick to find the shower curtain, one of the pieces for the picture, and the key for the glass cabinet once the candlestick had melted.

“You were very fast there, Flora,” Yuki noted with a smile. “Well done.”

“Oh,” Flora blushed. “It was nothing. Easy, really.”

Yuki was still smiling as she placed everything on the coffee table. Flora tried to ignore her. She didn’t deserve Yuki’s compliments. 

“Ennea, can you use this on the glass cabinet?” Flora passed her the candleholder. “And Yuki, can you hang this shower curtain up, please? I don’t know if it will do anything, but we may as well give it a try.”

“Of course.”

The two girls got to work. Ennea gave Flora the second piece of the puzzle. Thankfully, she could remember what the picture looked like from staring at it for so long in the B92 room, so she could put those two pieces into place easily.

“Flora?” Yuki called out, noticing Flora was just behind her.

“Yeah?”

“There’s a hole in the curtain. I don’t know if it’s important.”

Flora went in to have a look. The hole in the curtain was just big enough so one tile could be seen. She had briefly checked the bathroom in B92 but found nothing of use there. She didn’t see how this could be relevant. 

Ennea had noticed that there seemed to be some sort of meeting in the bathroom, so she decided to join them.

“What’s up, you two?”

“We’re trying to figure out what this shower curtain is for,” Yuki explained. “There’s a hole in it. Do you think it’s an accident?”

Ennea shook her head almost before Yuki finished speaking. “Absolutely not. Zero, whoever he is, has made this game for a reason. I’m sure that literally everything in here is important in some way.”

“Even the toilet?” Yuki giggled. 

Ennea laughed. “Okay. Maybe not the toilet. My point is that this hole is definitely for something. Zero wouldn’t make a mistake like that.”

Yuki and Flora nodded. She was right. Flora had almost forgotten about Zero completely. There had been so much to take in that the creator of this game had been pushed to the back of her mind. But she couldn’t forget. They were the one to kidnap her and Luke. 

Flora closed her fists tightly by her side. Whoever this was, she could never forgive them to what they’ve done to all these innocent children.

“Flora? Are you okay?” Ennea asked, clicking her fingers in front of Flora’s face.

Flora blinked and was pulled back to reality. “Oh, sorry. Just… thinking.”

“Right... Anyway, Yuki was saying that it might relate to the room across from us. Was there a wall like this next door?”

“Yes.” Flora definitely remembered a wall like this in the bathroom. It would be hard to miss one as colourful as this. “Do you think we have to do something with that tile?”

“You mean  _ you  _ have to,” Ennea smirked. “There’s no point all of us going in there.”

Flora huffed but made sure to smile. She did have a point after all. “Fine. I’ll go. Be back in a minute.”

Clover looked up as Flora came back into the room but didn’t say anything. Flora didn’t even bother to stop before she went off to the bathroom to do whatever she needed to do with this wall.

She stood looking at it for a minute before she realized that she may need to inform Luke about what she figured out. She knew he was incredibly smart, but if he was panicking like he did back in the cabin downstairs, he may have overlooked something.

Flora concentrated hard on seeing Luke in her head. She still wasn’t sure how this transmitting thing worked, but this way worked for her, so she would continue to do it this way until someone told her it was wrong.

_ Luke, the tile in B93 that’s shown through the shower curtain corresponds to the same tile in B92! _

Luke responded almost immediately and not with the answer she expected.

_ I already figured that out on my own! Before you, in fact! _

Flora frowned. He’d already worked it out? She shook her head. Of course, he had. He was Professor Layton’s apprentice, after all. Of course, he would solve this before she did. She sighed. Why had she even bothered to contact him if he was just going to gloat at her like that?

Flora sighed. She thought to herself for the hundredth time that day how little she was needed here.

She stared at the wall. What was she supposed to be doing again? She remembered which tile was the right one, but what would she do with it? She tried pressing it into the wall. No good. 

“Why can’t I do this?” Flora was mumbling to herself. “I bet Luke’s solved this already.”

The fact that he hadn’t communicated with her since his gloat proved that he didn’t need her help. Flora tried her best to keep a clear head. It was what the professor had taught her, after all. Or it was more like he had taught Luke while she overheard from nearby. She always came second to him…

Clover had noticed Flora was taking a while in there. She had assumed she’d just needed to use the toilet, but as she peered around the corner, she realized the door was open. What was she doing in there?

“Flora?” Clover spoke up. Her tone had changed since Flora’s outburst. She was trying her best to be gentle. “Are you okay?”

Flora put her head in her hands. She didn’t need Clover poking her nose in her business. “I’m fine. I just need to solve this puzzle.”

“Oh, can I help?” Clover had always been good with puzzles. She enjoyed them, in fact.

Flora didn’t move for quite a while. She was tired of everything. So tired, in fact, that she didn’t argue this time. She moved to the edge of the room to lean on one of the walls, not bothering to lift her hands away. “Be my guest.”

“Yay!” 

Despite everything, Flora found herself smiling. Clover reminded her of Luke in that they were both always excited whenever a puzzle presented themselves to them. She wished she could be more like them.

After Flora pointed out which tile needed attention, Clover figured out what to do in less than a minute. She held the tile in her hands and showed it to Flora.

“See? You just had to prise the tile off with your fingers.”

Flora looked up and realized that Clover was holding the final piece of the picture. She looked so proud of herself that Flora couldn’t bring herself to be mad at her.

Flora took it and tried her best to smile. “Thank you… for helping me, I mean.”

Clover beamed. “No need to thank me. It was fun!”

Flora laughed, despite herself. “I guess so.”

Soon enough, Flora had arranged the picture back in the other room. The frame slid down on the wall, revealing an alcove that held the key they had been looking for.

“Great! Now we can get out of here!” Ennea smiled after Flora had grabbed the key.

“Yeah,” Flora said, with less enthusiasm. Of course, she was happy to leave this place too and move on, but she knew that this wouldn’t be the end. There would be so many more rooms to escape from and puzzles to solve. What if it was never-ending?

“Yuki, how about you get Clover for us?” Ennea asked, bringing Flora out of her thought spiral.

“Sure.”

Soon, all four of them joined in the corridor. It seemed they were all anxious to leave and see what the rest of the building held for them. Thankfully, Clover reminded them that they had to wait for the other team first. 

Fortunately, due to Flora’s and Luke’s transmitting skills, they were able to ensure that the other team who had gone through door four were at the same stage as them. Of course, Luke’s group were at the same point. They had actually been waiting for them for a while.

Flora rolled her eyes.  _ You don’t have to brag about how smart you are, Luke. We all get it. _

“Um, I guess we can go then,” Yuki said once there hadn’t been any movement for a while.

Flora, who was holding the key, started. “Oh, um, sorry.”

She quickly put the key into the keyhole and all four of them pulled open the doors.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Seven’s real name isn’t mentioned at all in the Zero Escape series, so the name I have given him isn’t canon (Daisuke Akiyama). I thought it fit him well though as, in Japanese, Daisuke means great/big help and Akiyama means mountain.

Clark, Brenda, and Hershel made their way back to the apartment and sat down on the sofa. They all felt exhausted, even though the walk from the police station only took ten minutes.

“So…” Brenda broke the silence. “What are we supposed to do for four hours?”

There were some ideas thrown around, like puzzles or board games, but they ended up just sitting there. Sometimes, they made conversation, but most of the time was spent staring into space or sleeping. No one had the energy to do anything, and they would feel guilty about doing something fun while their children were missing.

It had been almost four hours of nothing when Clark finally decided to turn on the TV. He couldn’t take the silence any longer. He preferred silence while he worked, but this silence was too heavy. It was almost suffocating.

The TV was on, but no one was particularly listening or watching. It was just background noise. Clark flicked through channels absentmindedly until he came across a news program. As the news reporter spoke, the three of them stared. This couldn’t be real.

_ “Breaking news. Sixteen children have been reported missing in the Laughlin area during the early hours of this morning. The Laughlin Police Department are currently on the case but, as of this broadcast, there is no known reason as to why these children have gone missing. More on this story as it develops-” _

The news reporter continued to speak, but Hershel couldn’t hear her. All he could think about was Luke and Flora. Had they really been taken by someone? And why?

Brenda and Clark were speechless, just like Hershel. They had both been worried, of course, but they had been hoping that Luke would return to them by now. It had been six hours since they noticed that Luke and Flora had left the house, but what if they had been missing for long before that? There was no way to know.

“I have to go to the police.” Hershel had spoken, but his voice sounded far away to all three of them.

He stood up before he got a reply and strode towards the door to grab his coat. Clark thought to stop him, but he knew that it would do no good. Hershel would go, no matter what. 

“I’ll be back soon.”

“Right.”

Knowing now where the station was, he arrived there in no time. He ran through the streets, not caring if he bumped into anyone. A few times he got caught at pedestrian lights and waited impatiently. All he could think about was getting Luke and Flora back as quickly as possible, whatever it took.

Hershel arrived at the station, out of breath and clutching his side. Thankfully, the receptionist remembered exactly who he was so no awkward questions had to be asked.

She was, however, shocked at his sudden entrance. She knew how serious these missing cases were, but she didn’t expect this.

“Professor Layton. I assume you’re here to see Officer Akiyama?”

“Yes,” he panted. “Is he here?”

“He just started his break not long ago, but I’m sure he will talk to you. I will contact him for you.”

“Thank you.”

Hershel sat down on a plastic chair near the reception desk to help get his breath back. It didn’t take long, and he was soon bouncing his knee.  _ What was taking this man so long? _

“Layton, is it?”

Hershel hadn’t noticed him come in. He decided quickly that he would be grateful to have someone like him to work with. He already felt safe just by his presence.

Hershel stood up, offering his hand. “Yes. A pleasure to meet you, officer.”

“Please. Call me Daisuke. So you’re the famous Professor Layton, yeah?”

Hershel blushed and glanced at the receptionist. It seemed that she was blushing also. “I suppose so. I have worked with Scotland Yard on some cases back in England.”

“Well, I’m sure you’ll be a big help here! Let me show you what we’ve been working on so far.”

Hershel followed Daisuke into the police station. He wondered why the officer had accepted him as quickly as he had. Perhaps Daisuke had also heard of the great Professor Layton and decided he could use all the help he could get. Hershel found it very difficult not to feel happy about that. He could help save Luke and Flora!

As soon as they were in an office, Daisuke started to talk.

“Right, so we’re trying to figure out who’s behind this.”

Hershel nodded, expecting more, but Daisuke stayed silent. 

“Ah, not much luck, I take it?” He asked.

Daisuke smiled awkwardly. “I guess that’s one way to put it. We have a slim lead, but we can’t be 100% sure about anything yet. I’ll let you know if we find anything concrete.”

“I can only hope you find something of use.”

“Thank you, Professor.”

Hershel was going to speak again when the room started spinning. 

“Are you alright?”

Hershel heard him fine, but he was mostly concentrating on trying to keep his feet. Daisuke reached out to steady him before he fell over.

Once Hershel had regained his balance, he answered the detective. “I’m alright. Thank you.”

“You didn’t look it to me. Do you have vertigo or somethin’?”

Hershel shook his head but stopped quickly as it made his head hurt. “No. I’ve never suffered with it before. I admit I did run here, so that could have something to do with this.”

Daisuke smirked. “You ran here?”

Hershel looked away, his cheeks flushing. “Yes.”

“You must really care about those two, huh?”

He couldn’t help but smile. “Luke and Flora mean a great deal to me, yes.”

“Well,” Daisuke grinned. “We’ll have to hurry this investigation up then.”

Hershel looked up at him quizzically. “Do you mean you’re allowing me to work with you on the case?”

Daisuke opened his arms wide. “Of course! I usually work alone, but you seem like you’d be a great help! You’ve got more brains for the two of us anyway.”

Hershel chuckled, not knowing quite what to say.

“Well, we’re all very busy so I’ll have to head back to work. I’m sorry that our meeting was short.”

“Oh, not at all. I hope you find some leads.”

“Of course. I’ll be sure to contact you if we do.”

“Thank you, Daisuke.”

After exchanging phone numbers, Hershel went on his way. He was careful to walk slowly this time as to not offset his balance.

“How was it?” Brenda asked as soon as Hershel had returned.

He explained, as fast as he could, about the police and their plans to rescue the missing children. He didn’t mention his episode from earlier. He figured the two were already worried enough about their son going missing.

“Well, that sounds like good news,” she smiled. Clark agreed, though with less enthusiasm than his wife.

“Would you like a cup of tea, Hershel?” Clark asked, noticing how tired his friend looked. “You look worn out from your trip.”

Hershel thought of declining since he shouldn’t be relaxing when Luke and Flora are in danger, but before he could answer, Clark was making his way to the kitchen. Both him and Brenda had predicted Hershel not answering, so they decided to answer for him. They both wanted a drink themselves anyway.

As Hershel watched Clark, he seemed to be stumbling slightly. He frowned. It was just like he had been doing himself at the police station.

“Brenda?”

“Hm?” She looked up at Hershel quizzically. 

“Have you been feeling lightheaded recently?”

Brenda thought for a moment, then her expression changed. “Yes. I have, actually. How did you know?”

Hershel began to smile. This was setting up to be quite the puzzle. “I felt the same earlier when I went to the police station. And I feel as if Clark is experiencing the same sensation as us.”

Brenda nodded. “Do you think we just had too much sleep? I don’t know about you, but I slept like a log last night.”

“I did also,” Hershel muttered. Despite how easily he fell asleep that night with next to no worry, it didn’t explain how he slept in so late. Usually, he would be awake by at least 6.30am to prepare for his classes. Maybe the difference in time zones had caught up to him… Yes, that must be it.

It felt like an age since Hershel had last drunk some tea. It was one of the few comforts he had at this time, so he made sure to savour it. The three of them managed some light chatter. It was mostly conversation about their respective careers, but it was enough for them all to feel a little calmer. In the end, Hershel had completely forgotten about the dizzy spell all three of them had had earlier today. The effects of the anaesthetic were wearing off for them, so it was easy for it to slip their minds.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for such a long wait with this chapter! a long while back, i had written loads of chapters already so i was putting those out even when i'd ran out of motivation to write. but obviously, i ended up running out of chapters which is why i took such a long time posting this one. i'll try and write more frequently from now on, but no promises hehe. i hope you enjoy this update anyway

Flora, Clover, Yuki, and Ennea made their way through the heavy oak doors into a large hallway split into two by a metal grate.

“Woah, this room’s pretty big,” Clover muttered, spinning around on the spot.

Flora couldn’t help but smile. It was easy to forget that she was just a kid.

“There are elevators there,” Yuki pointed to one end of the hallway. “Do you think they work?”

Clover follow Yuki’s hand and rushed over to them. She jabbed the buttons several times before sighing.

“Nope. They don’t work.”

“Well, I doubt Zero would make it that easy,” Ennea shrugged.

“And besides, the lower levels of this ship are flooded anyway,” Flora chipped in, remembering her emotional episode from earlier.

The rest of them turned to look at her, shocked and a little frightened.

“Really?” Yuki asked. “Well, that’s not good.”

“Yeah…” Flora trailed off, looking anywhere but her group. She always seemed to be the one to bear bad news. In this time, she noticed a door near them on their side of the grate.

She began to walk over to it and the others followed. 

“What are you waiting for?” Clover said, staring at Flora’s hand hovering above the door handle.

“Oh,” Flora blinked a few times. “Sorry.”

She opened the door and the four of them stepped into a kitchen. It was almost underwhelming.

“I was hoping this would be the exit,” Clover mumbled. “I just wanna see my brother again.”

Flora considered repeating herself from earlier but bit her tongue. It wasn’t wrong to have hope in situations like this.

“Well, I think the exit to this room is that door there, if that helps,” Ennea said, pointing to the door on the opposite side of the room.

“Oh, great.” Clover didn’t seem much happier.

Flora suddenly remembered something. “Clover, don’t you have that map of B Deck?”

Clover looked up at her for a few seconds, confused, until she remembered too. She grinned. “Oh, yeah! Here you go.”

Flora received a slightly crumpled piece of yellowing paper. She rolled her eyes jokingly while she opened it. It seemed that the exit from the kitchen would bring them on the other side of the metal gate.

“Should we tell the other team?” Yuki asked. “I think they would want to know this as well.”

Flora scolded herself. Why does she keep forgetting about this power that she has? It was the only way that Luke would be able to escape.

Despite that, she followed the others and tried her hardest to transmit the information. She wondered why they bothered to all do it when surely, one person would be enough. Really, only two people needed these powers. One could transmit, the other would receive and then the information could be spread by word of mouth. So why did Zero need all these kids? They could’ve picked anyone else to be on the team.

But that didn’t matter now. All that mattered was escaping this room, and this building. Flora smiled imagining how Luke and her would reunite. She welled up just thinking about it.

But she quickly blinked away her tears. What was the point in dreaming of a future if they were unsure if they’d ever get one?

“So, are we gonna start or what?” Clover’s voice brought her back to reality. It seemed that they were all stuck in their thoughts to some degree.

Ennea blushed and looked at the ground, and Yuki cleared her throat awkwardly.

“Right,” Flora muttered, turning away to start searching. They couldn’t waste any more time. The bell may have already rung, but they just couldn’t hear it in the room. That thought alone spurred her on.

They figured that they must be looking for a key card since the only way to open the exit was a card reader. So they began to search.

The four of them assigned themselves a section to search each, and Flora got the kitchen counter. There were four piles of plates on the counter along with a voucher.

Flora picked it up, hoping to find a clue. It read:

‘Appetizer 9, Meat dish 10, Soup A, Seafood dish F’.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” She muttered.

A thought occurred to her. Maybe this note has something to do with the plates next to it. After a count through them all, Flora realized she was right. She didn’t know what any of these plates were for, but she could only assume that the voucher told her everything she needed to know.

“Hey guys?” Flora called.

The three girls turned their heads to look at her.

“Yeah?” Ennea called back. “Did you find something?”

“Ooh! Let me see!” Clover bounded over and practically snatched the paper from Flora’s hand.

Flora rolled her eyes but didn’t protest. Maybe Clover knew something she didn’t.

“Why are there letters here and not numbers? That doesn’t make any sense!” She scrunched up her nose and gave it back to Flora, gentler than before.

Ennea’s eyes widened. “Wait, let me see that!”

“Um, sure.” Flora didn’t understand the sudden realization, but she didn’t question it.

Ennea looked over it a few times before she spoke. “Could this be hexidecimal?”

“Hexi-what?” Clover looked even more confused than before. 

Flora was inclined to agree. She had never heard of that before. Yuki, however, gasped quietly. It seemed she knew what Ennea meant.

“It could be!” Yuki smiled. “Maybe it’s a code for something.”

Flora frowned. “How do you know this?”

Ennea shrugged. “My mom works in cybersecurity, so she knows this stuff. She’s mentioned it a couple times before. I was the only one who paid attention though. Nona isn’t into numbers.”

The rest nodded. It seemed that her mother was very intelligent. Flora felt a pang of sadness. She never truly got to know her real mother. She had Dahlia, of course, but it wasn’t the same. Her father had been in her life for a while, but he died shortly when she was still young. There was only her adoptive father now.

Did he even know her and Luke were gone? What if he didn’t even notice? She had been kidnapped multiple times before now, and no one had tried to prevent it. She was rescued in the end, but it was as if she didn’t matter to them. The two of them often left her alone to go on adventures by themselves anyway. Her father had probably only cared that Luke had gone missing. He had always been more important than her.

She could hear the others talking, but they sounded far away. Flora had to try her hardest not to burst into tears again. She couldn’t cry. The others had enough problems as it was.

“Damnit!”

Flora heard Ennea cry out. The code must not have worked, Flora thought to herself. What a shame.

She felt a tap on her shoulder.

“Are you okay?”

Flora jumped away from the contact and realised it was Clover who had spoken. She couldn’t help but smile.

“Oh, um, I’m fine. Thank you, Clover.”

The girl returned the smile. “Good! Now, we have to get to work!”

Clover’s sudden enthusiasm seemed to motivate Flora, and soon the four of them were making headway on finding the code.

After scouting the area, they found that one door was rusted shut. However, they were free to investigate the pantry. In there, they found a rusty knife inside a wooden box, and a bottle of oil.

“I thought they might come in handy,” Flora said as she noticed Clover’s confused look after exiting the pantry.

Clover couldn’t see why, but she saw no point in arguing. She hadn’t found anything useful anyway.

“Hey, do you think we could use this to sharpen the knife? We might need it for something later,” Yuki called, holding a whetstone in one hand.

“Um, sure.”

Flora quickly, and safely, sharpened the knife and set it down on the kitchen counter. She didn’t feel safe carrying it around with her. She was known to be clumsy, especially when she was nervous. If anything happened… she didn’t even want to think about it. 

She set the oil down next to the knife, and Flora continued to look around the kitchen with Ennea and Yuki. Meanwhile, Clover was staring at the rusted lock.

“There must be something we could use to get this open.”

“Yeah…” Flora said, sarcasm evident in her voice. “That’s what we’re  _ looking  _ for.”

Clover glared at Flora. “Jeez, no need to be like that. I was just saying… Oh!”

“What?”

“We could use the oil! To, like, loosen it.”

Ennea nodded, impressed. “You might be onto something.”

She took the oil off the counter and tried it on the lock along with a cloth she found nearby. It worked like a charm. Ennea let Clover pull the door open while they all cheered.

“Well done, Clover!” Yuki grinned.

“Yeah, well done,” Flora couldn’t help but smile.

Clover beamed. “Thanks!”

Once they were inside the fridge, they quickly found that there wasn’t much to find here. The last thing they checked was the freezer where they found a slab of pork.

“Mmm! I’m so hungry! I wish we could cook that.”

“Well,” Yuki shrugged. “We do have a grill back there.”

“Ohmigosh, can we cook it?!  _ Please _ ? I’ll share it, I promise!”

Yuki giggled. “I really don’t know how long that pork has been in there, so I don’t think you’d want to risk food poisoning.”

Clover sulked, but she understood. “Ugh, fine.”

Regardless Yuki took the pork out of the freezer to check it over. She quickly noticed something.

“There’s a note stuck in here.”

Ennea peered over her shoulder. “Hmm, you’re right. Maybe cooking it will make it easier to get the note out?”

Flora nodded. “That could work.”

The four of them exited the kitchen and put the pork onto the grill.

“Hey, what if the paper catches on fire?” Ennea asked. “We won’t be able to read it then.”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine if we keep an eye on it,” Flora smiled.

Ennea couldn’t argue with that, but she made sure not to take her eyes off the pork for even a second. She knew that the note had to be important.

After what felt like forever, the pork finally looked cooked. It didn’t matter since no one was going to let Clover touch it. It only mattered that the note would be able to be cut out of the rest of the meat.

Flora didn’t trust herself with the knife so Ennea took it upon herself to cut out the note.

She read it with a frown. “It says ‘C + 10 + F.’”

“Do you think it’s hexidecimal again?” Yuki asked.

Ennea shrugged. “Probably. We might as well try it.”

Flora, Clover, and Yuki watched Ennea mutter to herself until she exclaimed that she had worked it out.   
She quickly typed the number 43 into the safe and pressed enter. The LED screen replaced the number with the word OPEN, then the door opened.

“Yay!” Clover cheered.

“Well done, Ennea,” Yuki smiled. Flora quickly copied her, realising that once again she was the last person to congratulate someone else’s hard work.

That thought was pushed to the back of her mind, however, once Ennea pulled out what was inside the safe.

She held it between two fingers and grinned. “We have the key card!”

“Awesome!” Clover smiled. “Let’s get out of here!”

Ennea laughed. “Couldn’t have said it better myself.”

The four of them rushed to the exit, and Ennea swiped the card on the scanner. The green light flashed on the card reader, and they heard the telltale sign of the door unlocking.

“Alright. Let’s go then,” Ennea grinned.

“Wait!” Flora put out a hand before they could leave. “We haven’t told the other group about hexidecimal code. What if they can’t figure it out?”

“Your brother seems smart. I’m sure he can work it out on his own,” Yuki smiled.

Flora laughed. “Yes, I guess so. But we don’t want to be waiting for them for long, do we?”

They couldn’t argue with that. The group sent a quick message to the other team, and then they were set to leave.  Ennea pulled the door open, and the four found themselves in a very familiar location.

* * *

“So we went through all this just to end up in a hallway, huh?” Aoi wasn’t impressed in the slightest.

Light chuckled. “I’m certain that this hallway leads to somewhere more important. There’s no need to jump to conclusions, Aoi.”

He rolled his eyes, knowing that Light wouldn’t be able to see. “Whatever. Should we try the elevators?”

Before he had even finished his sentence, Luke had already run over to press the buttons on both elevators.

“Aw, they don’t work!”

“Thought as much,” Light muttered. “Zero wouldn’t make it so easy.”

“What’s this grate for then?” Nona asked, giving it a shake. She laughed to herself once she’d finished. “I don’t even know why I bothered trying to open it.”

Light smiled. “I assume that it will be important later on.”

Aoi was tired of this waiting around. He had noticed a door by the side of them that must lead somewhere. “How about we check this door out since it’s the only one here?”

The three others agreed and soon, all four of them were in a kitchen.

Luke was somewhat disappointed that they hadn’t found the exit already, but he also knew it wouldn’t be that easy, as Light had said.

“So what the hell do we do in here then?” Aoi asked, clearly eager to escape already. 

Suddenly, he went quiet.

Luke was about to ask if he was okay when he heard it too.

_ The exit from the kitchen will bring you to the other side of the metal gate. _

No doubt that this was the other group relaying information.

Luke frowned. “How did they know that?”

Light shrugged. “They must have found a map that we don’t have access to.”

With that taken care of, they now had the question of how they would find a way out of this room at all.

“There’s a key card reader over on that door,” Nona pointed to the exit door on the opposite side of the room.

“So there must be a key card hidden somewhere,” Light finished. “I assume we will need to find that.”

Aoi scoffed. “Alright, smartasses. Let’s get to searching then.”

The four began to search. Luke was looking around too, but he let his mind wander. He was calmer now that the adrenaline rush had worn off from before. Unconsciously, his mind turned to Professor Layton. He wondered how he and his parents had reacted when they found that him and Flora were missing. Did they even know they were gone?

Luke berated himself as soon as the thought crossed his mind. Of course, they would notice! But then… why hadn’t they come to rescue them? Would they ever try? Or will Luke and Flora be forced to complete this puzzle themselves? Knowing for a fact that not everyone will make it out the number nine door made Luke’s skin crawl. Who would be left behind if no one came for them?

Luke exhaled, trying to banish his negative thoughts along with his breath. The professor would save him. He knew he would!

“Luke?”

He whirled around to Nona’s voice. He felt his cheeks burn read as he saw Light smirking at him.

“We found some things in the pantry,” she continued. “But this other door is rusted shut.”

“Oh,” Luke rubbed the back of his neck, hoping he hadn’t been daydreaming for too long, “that’s great. What did you find?”

“A bottle of oil and a rusty old knife.”

Aoi scoffed. “I bet those will be  _ so  _ useful.”

Nona shot a glare his way and turned back to Luke. “So, do you have any ideas?”

Luke shook his head. “No, sorry.”

He decided to walk over to join them anyway on the other side of the counter. As he walked around the counter, he noticed the stacked plates. He stared at them for a minute.

“Are those important?”

Light shrugged. “Possibly. There seems to be something like a safe on the other side of this counter, so maybe it is a clue to what the code is.”

Luke didn’t even realize there was a safe on his side. He looked away, feeling his face heat up. He really was no help at all here, was he?

“Did anyone count the plates?” Aoi asked, breaking the silence.

Nona nodded. “Yep. There were nine square plates, ten soup plates, ten of the plates with wavy ridges on, and fifteen of those other ones.” She pointed to each pile in turn.

“That would be fourty-four,” Light said almost without hesitation. “Try that number, Luke.”

“Sure.”

Luke punched the number in and groaned as the safe beeped at him. 

“It’s the wrong answer,” he told the rest.

Aoi frowned. “Well, we don’t wanna waste any more guesses on that. Maybe they set a limit or something.”

“True,” Nona muttered. “Let’s try and get that other door open in the meantime.”

The four of them got to thinking. Since this was a puzzle of sorts, there must be a way to get into that room otherwise why would it be there? Luke frowned, deep in thought, until Aoi shouted out.

“What?” The rest of them turned to him simultaneously.

“Can’t we use this oil to get the bolt loose?”

Nona almost looked impressed as did Light.

“Maybe,” she muttered. “How about you do the honors?”

Aoi smirked. “Gladly.”

After Luke found a rag to use, Aoi used the oil on the rusted bolt. It came loose quickly and the door could be opened.

They found themselves in a walk-in fridge, but found not much of use there, even with four of them looking at once.

“Um, sorry, I kinda zoned out for a while back there,” Luke muttered as they searched.

“It’s alright, Luke,” Light smiled. “This has been a lot for all of us to take in. It’s understandable that you would have trouble concentrating.”

“Yeah, and leave the rest of us to do all the work,” Aoi mumbled.

“Hey! We’ve only just started!” Luke shot a glare Aoi’s way, who returned it easily.

“Boys, calm down,” Nona interrupted before an argument could break out. “I’m sure Luke will figure out the code before all of us.”

Luke blushed deeply. He didn’t realize Nona believed in him that much. “Um, thanks, Nona.”

Eventually Light found a slab of pork in the fridge, which seemed to be the only useful thing inside. He quickly found that there was a piece of paper stuck in it.

“Maybe we could use that grill out there to heat it up. We don’t want to tear the paper,” Light continued.

“Good idea, Light,” Nona smiled. “Aoi can do that.”

Aoi looked positively offended. “Why me?!”

“You’ve done nothing but argue with Luke so far. You can do something useful for a change,” she smirked.

“But I got the lock open!”

“ _ I  _ found the oil, if you remember.”

“Ugh, fine.” Aoi knew arguing would waste time, so he let Nona have this one.

He quickly headed over to the grill and put the pork down.

“Won’t the paper catch on fire?” Luke asked, looking warily at the pork.

“It won’t if we keep an eye on it,” Aoi said. “It’ll be fine. You worry too much.”

Luke bit his tongue. He didn’t want to argue either. It didn’t accomplish anything.

Soon enough, the pork had finished cooking, and, after sharpening the knife, Aoi cut out the note with it.

“Ugh, more numbers.” Aoi shoved the scrip of paper in Luke’s face almost immediately after he’d read it.

Luke couldn’t help but chuckle but took the paper anyway. He read it aloud so Light knew what it said. “C + 10 + F. What does that mean?”

Three blank faces greeted him. No one seemed to know what the clues meant.

_ It’s hexidecimal. _

Luke froze in realization, along with the rest of his teammates.

“Oh my god!” Nona smacked her forehead with the palm of her hand. “My mom deals with hexadecimal all the time. How could I forget?”

Aoi smirked at Nona. It faded when she glared at him.

Light, however, was actually focussed on the task. “So I assume the letters ‘C’ and ‘F’ correspond to numbers in hexidecimal code?”

Nona nodded. “I guess so. But I can’t remember how it works.”

Aoi sighed. “What help you are.”

Nona glared once again. “I can’t do all the work, you know!”

“Whatever.”

Luke suddenly remembered something. “What about those plates we looked at earlier?”

Aoi raised an eyebrow. “What about them?”

“They could help us work this out. So there were, um...”

Nona quickly realized he was struggling to remember the amount of plates and ran over to recount them. “Nine square plates, ten soup plates, ten wavy plates, and fifteen normal ones.”

“Okay,” Luke muttered. “So could C and F be any of those numbers?”

“Hmm.” Nona was trying hard to remember what her mom had told her and her sister. “I  _ think _ it goes from one to nine and then you start counting in letters. So A is ten.”

Light nodded. It seemed he had easily picked up on this system. “So, C would be twelve and F would be fifteen.”

She nodded enthusiastically. “Yep! Wow, you’re good at this, Light!”

He chuckled. “Thanks.”

Luke glanced back at the equation again. He felt slightly ashamed that he wasn’t as fast as Light to solve this. “So that makes the answer thirty-seven, right?”

“Sure,” Aoi shrugged. “Try it on the safe.” He pointed underneath the counter where, sure enough, there was a safe. It most likely hid the key card they were looking for.

Luke tried the number, but nothing happened.

“What?” Luke frowned and took another look at the paper. “But that’s right!”

“Weird,” Aoi muttered. “We followed the instructions properly.”

“Yeah…”

Light thought for a moment then turned to Nona. “Do you think the number ten means something else in hexidecimal?”

Nona screwed her face in concentration. She never usually listened when her mom and sister talked about that kind of stuff. “I dunno.”

The others had only just started thinking of other solutions when Nona cried out.

“I remember!”

“What is it?” Luke blurted out. He didn’t want her to forget again.

“The number ten is sixteen in hexidecimal!”

Aoi and Luke frowned at her, and she took that opportunity to smirk at them.

“Don’t you get it? Once you count up to F, it goes back to ten and counts up in numbers again. So if F is fifteen, then ten must be sixteen.”

Aoi rolled his eyes. “You didn’t need to explain it like we’re kids. Well, to Luke, I would understand, but I’m older than you.”

Luke glared at Aoi, but he wasn’t looking so Luke quickly gave up. He was sick of being treated like a kid by Aoi.

“So the answer then would be…” Luke paused, trying not to count on his fingers. “Fourty-three, right?”

Light nodded, and Luke grinned. 

“Alright. Let’s open this safe!”

Fortunately, the safe opened this time, and Luke pulled out the purple key card.

“Good job, Luke,” Nona smiled. “Now let’s get out of here.”

The three boys nodded in agreement and rushed towards the exit. Luke quickly swiped the card in the reader and the light blinked green. The four grinned and quickly made their way outside.

It was a familiar sight. It was the same room they left before coming into the kitchen, but it was on the other side of the grate. However, it seemed that the gate had been pushed back. This was quickly explained to Light.

“Zero probably did that,” Aoi nodded to the grate.

“Probably,” Luke muttered.

Nona, Aoi, and Light walked forward to examine the grate, but Luke held back. He told them that he was going to talk to Flora and tell them they’d escaped.

_ Flora, we escaped the kitchen, thanks to your hints. _

_ You’ve only just escaped? I’m disappointed in you, Luke. We’ve been waiting for you for ages! _

Luke pouted, despite knowing she couldn’t see him. He supposed it was payback from earlier when he teased her for taking too long with the last puzzle.

He decided to leave it at that. They didn’t have time to chat.

“You done?” Aoi turned to Luke, who was walking towards the rest of the group.

“Yeah. Let’s keep going.”

Another chime from the clock told them they didn’t have much longer left.


	11. Chapter 11

Flora hummed as the four girls examined the open grate. “Why is it open? It was locked before.”

“I know,” Ennea muttered. “The other team couldn’t have done it. They’re on a different route from us.”

A quiet gasp from Clover made the rest turn towards her.

“What?” Flora couldn’t help but think that whatever Clover was about to say wouldn’t be good.

“Zero could’ve done it.”

Flora sighed. She was afraid she would say that.

Yuki frowned. “But why would they want to help?”

“I think,” Clover started, resting her chin on her hand, “he wants to because how else are we going to escape?”

Yuki thought about that for a moment. “I guess that could make sense. If we’re trapped in here, we wouldn’t be able to get to the number nine door.”

“But the other team would, and then the game would be over, right?” Ennea asked.

“But we have to help the other team on the boat, remember?” Flora pointed out. “If we can’t progress, neither can they.”

There were murmurs of agreements then Clover spoke up again.

“We can’t waste time! Where do we go next?” She was already pulling the map out of her pocket.

Flora took it from her. The four of them figured that out of the four routes they could take, only one would help them.

“Okay,” Ennea nodded. “Down to C Deck then.”

They took the stairs down, which were accessible now that the grate had been unlocked, to the lower deck.

“Hang on,” Flora said as they came out onto the landing. “I’m just going to check the water level.”

She remembered from earlier that D Deck had been completely submerged. The fact that C Deck was dry was a good sign, but she wanted to check it hadn’t risen anymore since they were in the kitchen.

“Sure.”

She ran down and quickly deduced that nothing had changed, or at least it hadn’t changed very much. Flora was relieved to see that. It meant that they still had time, but she knew that in less than 9 hours, the ship that Luke was on would sink. They had to help him escape!

With that thought in her head, she raced back up the stairs to C Deck where the other three girls seemed to be debating something.

“It will take  _ ages  _ to search all those rooms!” Clover whined. “There’s no point. They’re probably all just useless anyway.”

Ennea sighed. Clearly, Clover had already got her way. “Fine. Let’s try this other corridor then. There are only four doors. Can you manage that?”

Clover scowled at Ennea’s sarcastic tone. “Yeah. Jeez, I’m not a kid.”

Flora bit her tongue to stop herself from telling Clover that yes, she was still a kid. She was the youngest in this whole building, so that had to count for something.

From where she was standing, Flora could see two elevators that apparently the rest of the group had ignored. “Hey,” she said. “What about the lifts?”

The three, who were already walking to the right corridor, stopped to turn to Flora’s voice.

“If you’re talking about those elevators, we need another key card,” Yuki said.

“Oh, I guess we don’t have that yet then,” Flora mumbled, embarrassed that she’d asked such an obvious question.

“Yes. That’s why we’re about to try these doors.”

“Okay.”

The first door was a set of double doors, and they turned out to be unlocked. The four pulled them open and found themselves in a large room full of what looked like hospital beds.

“Uh, is this a hospital?” Flora asked quietly. For some reason, this room gave her goosebumps.

“I think so,” Yuki muttered. “Look, there are four more doors down there.”

The others followed her pointing finger and realised she was correct. More numbered doors. Great...

The leftmost door was numbered 3, the next one was blank, the third one along was numbered 7, and the last had an 8.

“Why is that one blank?” Clover asked, pointing at the second door from the left. 

Ennea shrugged. “Dunno. But I don’t think we’ll be able to get through any doors all together.”

Flora ran the combinations through her mind as did the others. They all soon came to the conclusion that at least two of them would be able to go through the number 3 door, but that would leave two others behind.

“We’re not leaving anyone behind,” Flora said sternly. The others nodded in agreement.

“Of course not.”

Clover ran forward to examine the doors closer, mostly the blank door which seemed to have piqued her interest. 

“Uh, guys?”

Ennea frowned. “What?”

“The scanners aren’t showing anything. I think they’re broken.” 

“You’re kidding me…”

The other three ran over and saw that Clover was right. Usually the LED screen would say ‘Vacant’ if no one was inside the door, but it said nothing now.

“Damn it,” Yuki muttered. “Maybe Zero did this, so we would have to fix them ourselves.”

“But that’s just a waste of time,” Clover whined.

“We know that,” Ennea said, “but we don’t have a choice.”

Flora nodded. “We should start looking for whatever is inside one of these things.”

Before they could start looking, however, the doors behind them opened to reveal five familiar faces.

All nine children beamed and felt relief coursing through them as they were finally reunited. 

Flora caught Iris’ eye, and she grinned. She was over the moon to see her again as she was the only person Flora felt like she had right now.

Iris walked over to her, smiling as well. “I’m glad you’re safe, Flora.”

“You too.”

They shared a brief hug, and suddenly everything felt better. The confusion and frustration Flora felt before seemed to melt away. She hoped Iris felt the same.

Meanwhile, Hikaru and Neptune were hugging and chatting. Both of them were elated to be reunited again. The rest of the group looked on in envy. They all wished they could be reunited with their siblings.

Flora shook herself out of her thoughts. She knew that all this envy would be pointless if they didn’t progress to the next stage. 

She cleared her throat and tapped Ennea on the shoulder. “Um, don’t we need to be fixing these scanner things?”

Ennea flinched slightly from the contact, still in her own little world, but she nodded. “Yeah, we do.”

She told the rest of the group what they would need to do. Flora suggested they split up into groups to search, so that’s what they did. Flora was quick to pair up with Iris, but Clover also asked to join. Iris was happier to accept than Flora, but she tried not to show it.

“Come on!” Clover seemed to be back to her enthusiastic self. “We need to fix the scanners, so we can find our brothers!”

Iris smirked. “I have a sister actually.”

“Whatever… Come on!”

Clover took off running, apparently tired of waiting for the other two. Flora shared a grin with Iris, and they followed.

* * *

Luke was about to follow the rest down the steps when they heard familiar voices. It sounded like the other team.

The nine of them stared at each other in disbelief. They didn’t think they would meet up so soon, if at all.

The first person to react was Akane. She’d barely even walked into view before she saw her brother and made a beeline for him

“Aoi!”

He coughed as he almost was winded by his sister running into him. “I didn’t realize you were so strong.”

“Of course I am!” She grinned. “Stronger than you, in fact.”

“Alright, alright,” he smiled, pushing her gently away. “We don’t have time for reunions. We have to get to the next place, wherever that is.”

No one seemed to react to Aoi’s words. They were still looking around in shock. Besides, no one else had a sibling in this group to be reunited with. They were still all strangers to each other.

“Come on! We have to hurry!”

Aoi didn’t wait for a response before he took off running towards the stairs. Thankfully, others followed. Luke was near the back, already out of breath. Aoi and Light were up front, closely followed by Nona and Akane.

Luke noticed that there were two corridors, but Aoi immediately swung around to the left. Luke wanted to call out that they had missed the corridor on the right, but he was too out of breath to say anything. He wondered why Aoi was suddenly so eager to get out of here. They all were, of course, but it seemed very sudden especially for him. But then he remembered that Akane was with him now. Luke supposed that Aoi was driven by finally being reunited with his sister. He understood that. He would probably be the same if Flora was with him.

Aoi and Light threw open the doors into the hospital room and, finally, the group stopped.

Luke doubled over, trying to catch his breath. Eventually, he was able to look around the room. It was full of hospital beds, and there were three numbered doors at the opposite end including one with no number. 

One girl, Jasmine, ran straight to one of the scanners and slammed her hand on to it.

“Hey! What are you doing?!” Aoi yelled. “We haven’t figured out who gets to go in yet!”

Apparently not hearing him, she continued to hit her hand on the scanner until she broke down crying.

Luke was immediately by her side. “Hey, what’s wrong?”

“It doesn’t work,” she said in between sobs. “We’re trapped!”

Luke frowned and decided to try it for himself. She was right. The scanners weren’t working.

“Damn it…” he muttered. “What’s wrong with them?”

Behind him, he could hear raised voices, one of them being Aoi. He spun around to see two of the boys fighting. Aoi was trying to pull them apart but ended up getting punched too. Light ended up having to hold him back after that. Aoi looked ready to flatten them both.

Luke suppressed an eye roll and ran over to the rest of group, after taking Jasmine’s hand to pull her up. She followed Luke back just as quickly, trying her best to dry her eyes.

“Hey! Stop that!”

No one seemed to want to listen to him. Akane was hiding behind Aoi, possibly worried about getting caught up in the fight.

“I wanna go home!”

Luke looked on as another girl began to cry. It was one of the younger girls; Akira. Luke tried the same approach that he’d done with Jasmine, but it didn’t work this time. 

She shouted at him to go away, so he dropped it and backed off.

“Sorry.”

He went and stood by Aoi, Light, and Akane. He felt safer with them, but he didn’t particularly like looking on at all this chaos. The two boys were still fighting. They had been running beside Luke before. He still couldn’t remember who they were, and he didn’t feel like asking them now.

Nona watched this all unfold, feeling increasingly more frustrated. If the other team hadn’t joined them and ruined this, her team could’ve got through the doors already. She couldn’t understand why there was already so much going on. They’d only all met back up five minutes ago. What had happened in the other group to make them like this?

Not able to stand it any longer, she marched over to Aoi and glared at him.

“Break up that fight over there, or so help me, I’ll punch you next.”

Aoi’s eyes widened. “What? Why me?”

“Because I’m not about to punch a little kid, even though I  _ really  _ want to. You’re closest to me in age range. It’s only fair.”

“What about Light?!”

Nona smirked in Light’s direction. “He hasn’t done anything to annoy me this whole time. You have done plenty. So  _ please  _ do something. Luke, go help him.”

Luke, who was just happy to be able to help, nodded quickly. “Of course. Come on, Aoi.”

Aoi rolled his eyes but followed Luke regardless. Nona turned back around just in time to see Jasmine slap Akira across the face. She flinched. She hadn’t expected that at all, especially since Jasmine had been crying as well just moments ago. Maybe she felt as frustrated as Nona did but couldn’t hold back from it.

“Hello! Everyone! Could you come over here for a moment?”

This was the first time Light had spoken since entering the room, so his voice was unexpected. The rest of the group turned to stare at him. Aoi and Luke were holding the two boys back in their arms, Jasmine had her hand clenched in a fist, and Akira was holding hers to her face. Nona stared at Light in amazement. She had no idea his words could stop such a scene. Akane seemed to feel the same way.

Slowly but surely, the eight children joined Light on the far side of the room. They formed a circle with him, avoiding each other’s eyes.

“I have a little sister. She is very important to me. Right now, she is in Building Q desperately trying to send information over to me, as all of our siblings are.”

Luke was reminded of Flora, and how hard she and her team must be working to help them all escape. He wondered if she had met Light’s sister yet.

“Her name is Clover, and today is her ninth birthday.”

A few of the children looked up in surprise. Clover was only nine years old, and she had already gone through so much. It was almost too much to process. One of the children on the passenger liner was ten years old, almost eleven, but that was still a lot older than Clover was. None of them could imagine how Clover must be feeling.

Light cleared his throat, bringing them out of their thoughts. He had pulled something out of his pocket. In his hand were nine four-leaf clovers. Luke put the pieces together. This must be a present from Light to Clover. It really was a shame he wasn’t able to give those to her now.

“I was going to give these to her as a birthday present. I was outside picking them when I was abducted. I’m sure I’ve already told you, but I am blind. For a man who cannot see, collecting nine of a very specific plant is… Well, it is difficult.”

That earned a few sympathetic smiles from the rest. Luke couldn’t help thinking how kind Light was to put himself through the struggle of picking so many four-leaf clovers for his sister. He must care about her a lot.

“But my sister means a great deal to me, and I hoped that these would show how much I cared for her. Since it’s her ninth birthday, I thought nine four-leaf clovers would be appropriate. Every one of you has a brother or sister in Building Q with Clover.”

Luke once again found himself thinking of Flora. Why were the two of them the only ones not related by blood? Sure, Luke thought of Flora as a sister, but they weren’t  _ really  _ siblings, were they? So why had they been chosen?

“For their sake, we have to survive. We have to get off this ship. Do you understand?”

There were murmurs of agreement, and Aoi and Akane shared a nod. Despite them both being on the same ship together, they both knew that they could still be torn apart if they didn’t escape this ship. The thought of that filled them with determination. The others felt the same as they thought of their brothers and sisters desperately trying to help them.

“If we’re going to do that, there are three things you have to remember. We need to trust and love, and have faith in one another. If we can take all three of those to heart, then I promise good luck will come our way.”

Light fell silent. It felt eerily quiet in the hospital room without his voice. The only sounds were the creaking of the ship and the children’s breathing. Light began to pass around one clover for each of them to hold. Luke smiled as he was passed his. He would try his best to follow Light’s words, and he hoped the rest would too.

The atmosphere in the room now was calming, very different from a few moments ago.

All this talk about Light’s sister reminded Luke of not only Flora, but the Professor too. He knew that he would come and save him and Flora, despite the doubts he had had before.

“I have something to say too.”

In a split second, all eyes were on Luke. He tried to ignore his burning face as he spoke. “I have a friend too. He isn’t in Building Q, but I know he will save us. His name is Professor Layton, and he’s my best friend.” 

He paused, realizing that tears were welling up in his eyes. He didn’t want to cry in front of a bunch of kids he barely knew so he choked them down. “He’s gonna save all of us!”

Silence fell over the group. None of them quite knew what to say to that. But Aoi did.

His laughter broke the silence as he wiped fake tears from his eyes. “Come on, Luke. We all want our dads to come and save us, but it’s not gonna happen. Trust me.”

Luke scowled. Who does he think he is? He doesn’t know the professor at all! “He’s not my dad! He’s my best friend, and he saves everyone! Every puzzle has a solution, and he’s gonna find one for us!”

Aoi whistled. “Wow. You really care about an old man that much? I don’t really know what to say to that _. _ Kind of… what’s the word? Oh, yeah. Pathetic.”

“Shut up, Aoi.” 

Luke was still furious, and it clearly showed. Aoi didn’t say anything more after that. 

After the group realized there was nothing more to be said here, they split off again. Thankfully, no fights broke out this time. Eventually, everyone cottoned on that the scanners were broken, and they had to fix them.

Light and Aoi, reluctantly, split off the team into groups to begin searching. Luke noticed that he was no longer in a group with Aoi. He was now with Akira, Kenji, and Nona. He was fine with that. The only thing he was worried about was Kenji picking a fight with him. Funnily enough, if that did happen, he would turn to Nona to protect him.

“Alright. Let’s go,” Nona sighed. “I guess we have to look for whatever the hell we need to fix those scanners. Probably some circuitry or something.”

Kenji nodded. “Let’s go then.”


	12. Chapter 12

Yet again, the three of them were playing the waiting game. Hershel was a patient man for the most part, but he found that when his children’s lives were on the line, it was very difficult to stay level-headed.

They ended up waiting the rest of the day for the police station to call. As time wore on, Brenda and Clark became extremely worried about their friend. He barely spoke all day and mostly just stared out of their window as if Luke and Flora would appear on the street below if he looked for long enough.

“Do you want something to eat, Hershel? You’ll need your energy if you have to go off with that police officer, right?” Brenda asked, hoping that she would get at least some sort of reaction. He hadn’t spoken since they all had arrived home hours ago.

“You’re right.” 

Brenda and Clark grinned at each other, over the moon that Hershel had spoken to them, despite him still staring out the sitting room window. However, that seemed to be all Hershel had to say.

“Shall I make us all something, Hershel?” Clark decided to take initiative.

“Yes, that would be lovely, Clark. Thank you.” He turned to give his friends a smile and then settled with looking down at his hands.

The two of them took that as a success. Brenda stayed with Hershel while Clark made himself busy in the kitchen although neither of them talked during that time.

After a silent meal, the landline rang. It was as if the noise brought him back to reality, and Hershel suddenly sprung up from his seat and almost ran to the phone in his excitement. It was all Brenda and Clark could do to hold back their laughter.

“Good afternoon. Who am I speaking with?”

“Professor? This is Daisuke Akiyama from the police station. We’ve found a lead on those missing kids, and I was wondering if you would help us in tracking them down.”

“Of course! It would be an honour to assist you.”

Hershel could hear the other man laugh. “Don’t pretend that you don't want to save your kids too. I understand. I want to save them as well.”

“Oh, yes. Of course.” Hershel cleared his throat awkwardly. It seemed he had got too ahead of himself. “Would I be able to come over now?”

Daisuke smiled, happy that he would have someone with this amount of determination on his side. “For sure. I’ll be waiting, Professor.”

“Marvellous. See you soon.” 

Hershel hung up the phone and turned to his friends. He could tell they were worried, but this wasn’t the time for disagreements. He had to go. He had to save them.

“I guess you’re going with that police officer then?” Brenda asked, suppressing a sigh.

“Yes.”

With no further explanation, the Tritons knew it was pointless to argue. “Just… be careful, okay?”

Hershel smiled at them both. “Of course. I’ll return safe and sound with Luke and Flora before you know it.”

Clark couldn’t help but smile. The way he had said it sounded perfect, but Clark knew it wouldn’t be so easy. Hershel knew this also, but he didn’t want them to worry about him. Clark was grateful for this. 

“We trust you, Hershel. Good luck.”

He tipped his hat. “Thank you.”

And he was gone.

Once the door closed, Brenda let out a breath she didn’t realise she was holding. “Do you really think he’s gonna be okay?”

Clark shook his head, putting an arm around her. “I don’t know, dear. If his previous adventures with Luke are anything to go by, I would say yes. But I’m sure this is nothing like he’s experienced before. We just have to trust him.”

* * *

Hershel visited the police station for the third time that day so there was no wasted time. Daisuke was even waiting for him in the reception area, eager to share his newfound knowledge. The two men greeted each other and quickly made their way to the back.

“We’ve figured out that a pharmaceutical company is responsible for the disappearances. All the kids that were kidnapped had visited one of their hospitals in the past. I was able to get some insider information.” Daisuke wasted no time getting to the point. Hershel admired him for that. However, there was one part that confused him.

“Daisuke, you said all of the children visited this one hospital owned by Cradle Pharmaceuticals, correct?”

“Uh, yeah. That’s what we found out.”

“But Flora has never visited America before so she has never been to a hospital here. I’m also sure that Luke has never been there either. He has only been in America for a few months, and his parents have never mentioned him having a hospital visit.”

Daisuke frowned. “That’s weird. So they must be different, huh?”

“I suppose.”

The same questions ran around both of their heads: Why did Cradle Pharmaceuticals pick Luke and Flora as their participants? And how did they know about them if neither child had visited any of their hospitals? Neither of those questions were voiced, however. There were bigger things to worry about.

Daisuke decided to keep the ball rolling. He was itching to get to the wharf. “Well, the higher ups are responsible for the kidnappings. We were able to figure out where they’re going tonight.”

Hershel nodded and waited for Daisuke to continue.

“My source told me that a ship is set to take the children to a large passenger liner docked offshore.”

“I assume we are going to follow them there?” Hershel asked, a smile twitching at the corner of his lips. This situation was horrible, of course, but he also couldn’t wait to start solving another mystery again. It had been too long.

“Yep. Well,” his voice dropped to a whisper, and Hershel had to lean in to hear, “technically, we’re not supposed to be going tonight. We don’t have permission, but we’re goin’ anyway.”

Hershel was surprised to hear this. He wouldn’t have thought of Daisuke to be a rule breaker, but he knew it wasn’t the time to question this. Secretly, he was glad that Daisuke seemed so willing. Any more time waiting might be too long.

“Understood.”

As Hershel had experience in assisting police before, Daisuke didn’t have to spend too much time briefing his new partner. After making sure they were kitted up, they were off out of the back door. Thankfully, all the police officers were either out on patrol or in their offices so no one saw them sneak away.

They made it to the wharf in no time at all, it seemed. Daisuke parked the car far away from the wharf and the two of them walked the rest of the way so as to not attract attention. They stayed behind in the shadows until Daisuke found the ship his source had mentioned. 

It was hard to see anything in the dark, but Daisuke eventually found what he was looking for. He pointed to the ship out to Hershel. They shared a nod. It was beginning to get very real. 

There was a group in front of the ship of men in black suits. Many of them were carrying large bags. As Hershel studied them for longer, he felt his heart sink. The bags had a certain shape to them, like there were bodies inside. One of those could be Luke, he thought before he could stop himself. Tears stung at his eyes, but he blinked them back. This wasn’t the time for emotions.

Daisuke tapped Hershel on the shoulder. “Stay here. I’m gonna go out there.”

“Alright. Be careful.”

Daisuke tried as hard as he could to sneak over to them, his gun at the ready. As soon as Daisuke had stood up, it was too late for Hershel to warn him. 

“Don’t move.” A man had stepped out from behind some crates, just as Daisuke had done, and pressed a gun to the back of the officer’s head.

Hershel gulped as he saw Daisuke glance at him.  _ Don’t you dare move.  _ For once, Hershel stayed put. He trusted him.

“Drop the gun. I could kill you. It’d be easy to get away with it too. Just tie an anchor to your feet, and that would be that.”

Hershel made to move but stopped himself. If both of them got caught, it would be game over.

Daisuke groaned as the man pressed the gun harder into the back of his skull. He knew he couldn’t win this. His gun clattered to the floor, and Hershel let out a sigh of relief.

Before either of them could do anything, the man brought out a needle and swiftly stabbed it into Daisuke’s neck. 

Fearing the worst, Hershel ran out from his hiding spot. He hoped he could take the man out from behind but no such luck. 

The man saw him coming and raised his gun once again towards Hershel. He smirked. “Now, what are you doing out here on a night like this?”

Hershel raised his hands above his head, scolding himself for acting on impulse. He stuttered something about enjoying a nice night, but his voice was drowned out by the man’s laugh.

“Doesn’t matter. I didn’t care anyway, son. Now, how about you join your friend here?”

Hershel swallowed and was finally able to speak. “Is he dead?”

“Nah. Just took a nap, that’s all. Do you want to join him or do you want to make this a little more… permanent, shall we say?”

Hershel immediately thought of Luke and Flora. He couldn’t let them down. He sighed. “The first one seems more preferable.”

“That’s more like it.”

He slowly made his way towards Hershel and stabbed the needle into his neck. Hershel’s vision became blurry and he began to wobble on his feet, just as he had done at the police station that morning. But before he was able to piece that puzzle together, his mind shut off and soon, Daisuke and Hershel were both unconscious on the concrete floor.

“Nice one,” another man called out to his colleague as he noticed the two intruders were now still. “They really could’ve delayed our plans.”

The man with the needle shrugged. “Just doing my job, fellas. Now, who’s gonna help me lift ‘em?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i realised that the reason seven found out about cradle in 999 was bc all the kids went to one of their hospitals. i forgot about this until i got to this chapter. i assume that the kids were taken their first to be drugged for the nonary game but i had luke and flora drugged at luke’s house… so i’ve had to kinda change it up a bit


	13. Chapter 13

After making sure there were no pieces to be found in the hospital room, the nine children left in their respective groups. Luke, Akira, Kenji, and Nona followed the other groups out of the room to be met with complaining.

“We’re really gonna have to check all of these rooms?!” Nona sighed after she realized why they had stopped. “There’s, like, fifty doors.”

“We checked four of them before we came to the hospital room,” Akira piped up.

“That’s not very many though.”

“Hey, I’m sure they tried their best!” Luke said defiantly.

Akira smiled in return. “We did.”

“I’m sure we can search all these if we’re quick,” Kenji added.

Nona didn’t seem to be as enthusiastic, but what choice did she have? She’d probably wasted enough time talking as it was.

“Fine. So shall we take a side each?”

“That sounds fine,” Aoi muttered. It seemed he had been listening in, despite Luke hearing him complain with the rest only a minute ago.

“I wasn’t asking you,” Nona scowled. “Anyway. Let’s get going.”

“We can meet back in the hospital room once the clock chimes again, which gives us about an hour,” Aoi said.

“That sounds like a perfect plan,” Light smiled.

Aoi wasn’t sure what to do with Light’s enthusiasm, so he decided to ignore it.

“Alright. See you guys in an hour.”

Each group split up separately to take one room each, but they all came up empty-handed. Luke felt increasingly more frustrated each time he didn’t find anything.

About halfway through his search, he saw Nona in the corridor.

“Hey, found anything?” She asked him.

“No.” Luke slumped his shoulders. “Not yet, and I’m…” His speech was interrupted by a long yawn. “I’m getting a bit tired.”

Nona giggled. “I’m a bit tired too. This whole nonary game business could tire anyone out.”

“You can say that again,” Luke muttered, accompanied by another yawn.

Luke was about to go into his next room when Nona spoke again.

“Hey, I’ve been thinking.”

“What is it?” Luke took his hand away from the doorknob.

“We’ve barely talked about Zero this whole time. Who do you think he is? And what even is this place? Like, I know we’re on a boat, but why? What’s the point?”

Luke thought for a moment. She had a good point. What was the point in this whole game? And who was behind it.

He shrugged, coming up with nothing. It didn’t help that his brain was beginning to slow. “I don’t know. I guess we don’t have time to talk about that kind of stuff if we only have nine hours to escape.”

Nona hummed. “That’s true, but if you had to guess, who do you think it is?”

Again, Luke shrugged. He’d never given it much thought. He only cared about escaping and finding Flora and the professor again. “I really couldn’t say.” 

Well, honestly, I first thought it was one of us, but we're all only kids. I doubt we'd be smart enough to pull this off ourselves or have the money to buy a huge boat.”

Luke pouts. Yes, they were only kids so they wouldn’t have the money to orchestrate this, but that didn’t mean they weren’t smart. “Hey! I’ll have you know I’m  _ very  _ smart!”

Nona raised an eyebrow, smirking. “So you're saying you're Zero. Interesting…”

“What? No! I never said that!”

She giggled. “I was only kidding! Anyway, have a think, okay? It might help us if we know who’s behind this whole thing.”

Luke frowned. “Maybe… Thanks for the advice, I guess, but we really do need to keep searching.”

“True. It was nice to get a break though. Searching the same rooms over and over again is  _ so  _ boring.”

Luke chuckled. “Definitely! It was nice to talk to you though.”

“Likewise. Anyway, see ya.”

Nona waved, then opened the door into her next room.

Luke did the same and began to search, but Nona’s words ran around in his head all the same. Who was this mysterious Zero? Did they already know him? Or was he a complete stranger? Luke was almost excited to find out, but he knew that whoever Zero was, he was dangerous. He felt like he would be in big trouble if he ever ended up in the same room as him.

It was 1am before Luke knew it. The loud single chime told him that he should be meeting back in the hospital room.

Most of the kids were huddled in a group near the doors when Luke entered, closely followed by Light.

“What are they looking at?” Luke muttered, mostly to himself.

“I’m not quite sure,” Light said, hearing Luke’s mumblings. “Perhaps, they are fixing the RED scanners.”

“I hope so.”

But once the two boys joined the group, they quickly figured that the scanners had been fixed way before any of the kids had returned.

“I was the first one back, and it was just like this,” Jasmine said, gesturing to the scanners. “Someone else must have fixed them.”

“But who else could it be? There’s no one else here,” Akane said. Her voice was too quiet for most people to hear, but Luke heard her.

His eyes widened in shock. “Zero did this!”

A few of the kids looked up in surprise. Nona, however, was smiling. It seemed as if she suspected that too.

“I think Luke might be onto something,” Aoi said, ignoring Luke, who was now staring at him in disbelief. “Who else could it be other than the guy running this place? Unless it was Jasmine,” he added with a smirk.

All nine pairs of eyes landed on Jasmine, who immediately defended herself.

“What benefit would I have of keeping this a secret? Besides, you all saw me look through the same rooms you did, so I couldn’t have gone anywhere else.”

Robin and Akane muttered their agreements. Apparently, they had both seen Jasmine while they were searching. Why would the two of them lie as well? It didn’t make any sense to hide any of this. At least, this was Luke’s reasoning.

Aoi seemed to think the same way. He sighed. “Fine. It wasn’t you. Sorry, Jasmine, for accusing you.”

“It’s fine. I understand.”

After that little disagreement was cleared, the kids knew now that the next step would be figuring out who would go through which door.

“I’m staying with Aoi!” 

No one had so much as uttered a word before Akane threw herself at her brother and held on as if for dear life. Luke chuckled lightly at that. It was sweet to see how much she cared for him.

“Well, that’s sorted then,” Aoi grinned, his cheeks a light shade of pink.

No one had the heart to argue. Seeing how upset Akane had been the first time they were split up, and how happy she was when they were reunited, no one could break them up now.

The nine children quickly figured out the combinations needed to go through each door. It was a lot easier since there was only really one combination if Akane and Aoi were to stay together.

Just as the groups were about to walk to their respective doors, they all stopped suddenly. It seemed that their siblings had already made a decision. They were all too distracted by Akane’s insistence, and they forgot that the other team had to make a decision too.

“Hang on,” Luke muttered as Flora relayed her team’s combination to him. “Their combination is different from ours.”

“Oh.” Aoi seemed disappointed at that, and Akane frowned, still holding onto her brother.

“What should we do?” Jasmine asked, who was nearby Luke.

“Um…” Luke wasn’t sure. It didn’t help that everyone was looking at him like he was some sort of leader. He felt quite self-conscious.

He saw Aoi smirk at him from the corner of his eye.

Luke scowled at him. “What?”

“Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten.”

Luke thought for a minute then suddenly remembered. “Ah! I can talk to Flora!”

“ _ There  _ it is,” he grinned. “Go on then, do your thing.”

He couldn’t believe he’d almost forgotten he could communicate with Flora when none of the other children could. Why was that anyway? Did he have some sort of special power?

Luke was quickly brought out of his thoughts with a light nudge from Light. He realised he had been staring into space. He blushed darkly and looked to his feet. “Right. Sorry.”

He turned away and walked off to a corner of the room. It somehow helped more when he was on his own.

_ Flora, we have a bit of a situation. You see, we’d already worked out who was going through each of the doors before you talked to us. The two combinations we both have are different, so we need to come to an agreement. _

He waited for a while. Perhaps Flora and her team were busy. Thankfully, though, he didn’t have to wait long to hear Flora’s voice. He didn’t expect her to sound angry, of all things.

_ Luke! You’re supposed to wait until we tell you what to do! If you’d just waited, we wouldn’t be in this mess right now! _

He frowned. He had no idea why Flora was getting so worked up over this. They met up again after getting split up the first time, so it wasn’t like they’d never see each other again. Her team, of all people, should know anyway. They were the ones who were supposed to be helping.

He cleared his throat and tried to explain as calmly as possible.

_ We have siblings on our team, see, and they  _ really  _ wanted to be together this time. They were separated last time, and the little girl was very upset. _

He waited for a longer time for her to respond. Knowing Flora, she probably felt for the two siblings and wondering how she should best handle this. He hoped she wouldn’t yell at him again.

_ Well, we also have siblings on our team, and this is the only way they can be together. They were also very upset when they were separated. _

Luke sighed. This didn’t sound good. Whichever combination they picked, it would lead to at least one pair of siblings splitting up.

Luke was reminded of how adamant Akane was about staying with Aoi, so he made sure to let Flora know how much this meant to them. Flora fired back with the same intensity, but it seemed almost… forced. Was Flora lying to him? Luke didn’t want to believe it.

In the end, Flora finally relented and gave in to Luke’s arguments. He was happy to hear this, but there was a nagging in the back of his mind that there was more to this. There had been a long silence before she agreed. Had she been crying? He couldn't tell, but once he had thought it, it was hard to forget. Regardless, it would be best not to bring it up now. He felt it would be best to save that confrontation for later, perhaps when there isn’t the threat of dying looming over them.

Luke walked back over with a grin and told the rest that everything had been settled.

“You were over there for a while, Luke,” Light said after a moment of silence. “Was there some sort of disagreement?”

“Oh, um, yeah.” Luke awkwardly pulled at his collar. “Flora wanted a different combination because she didn’t want the siblings in her team to be split up either. But I managed to get her to make a compromise.”

Light smiled warmly along with a cheer from Akane.

“That’s great, Luke. Good job.”

“Oh, thank you.” He could feel his face heating up at the complement, but tried to ignore it all the same. “Anyway, let’s go then. We don’t have long left.”

* * *

Flora trudged through each of her assigned rooms, trying to find whatever was needed to fix the RED scanners. She still wasn’t even sure what she should be looking for, but she knew nothing here belonged in a scanner of any kind. 

Finally, the clock chimed once, signalling that it was one in the morning. She felt guilty for feeling relieved, but searching through these rooms was extremely boring. Plus, an anxiety had crept over her, reminding her that they were all wasting time. If the scanners weren’t broken, they could be well on their way by now.

She raced back to the hospital room with Clover and Ennea behind her.

The three of them opened the doors to see the rest crowded around one of the scanners.

“Have they fixed them already?” Flora heard Clover mutter to herself.

“Maybe,” Ennea shrugged.

Once they had joined the rest, Ennea awkwardly tapped one of the boys on the shoulder nearest her. Robin looked around to her.

“What’s going on?” She asked.

“It’s already been fixed.”

“Really?”

Robin stepped aside, so she could look. Robin had been telling the truth. The scanner really had been fixed.

“The rest are fixed too,” Yuki said, gesturing to the other doors. “It was like that when we first got here.”

Flora nodded. Why would they lie about that? It seemed a bit pointless, so she wasn’t going to waste energy questioning it.

Clover, however, had other ideas. “How do we know you’re not lying, huh?” She cocked her head to the side like a puppy.

“Oh.” Yuki didn’t expect to be questioned, it seemed. “I guess I can’t prove it to you, but you’ll have to take my word for it. I was the first person here, and all three scanners had been fixed.”

“Maybe Zero did it,” Akira piped up.

“Possibly,” Yuki said. “Look, all that matters now is that the scanners are fixed, right?”

Clover couldn’t argue with that. “True. I just wanna get out of here.”

A few other kids laughed. They all had the same mindset: to escape along with their siblings on the passenger liner. That was all they cared about.

The topic then turned to who would go through which door. Flora immediately knew that she wanted to be with Iris. Sure, working with Ennea and Yuki (and Clover, she supposed) was fun, but they were a lot younger than her. Working with someone was different than building a friendship. She felt like that would only work out with Iris, considering they were the oldest ones in the group.

As she heard other kids muttering to themselves, she knew she had to ask quickly before someone else did. 

Flora cleared her throat awkwardly, interrupting the silence just enough to be able to speak. “I would like to be paired with Iris, if… if that’s okay?”

She timidly looked around to the group and then to Iris. They didn’t get to work together the first time around, and Flora missed her company. The other kids were fine enough (Clover was starting to grow on her too, in fact), but they were too young for her to truly get along with. She felt as if Iris would be the best person to understand her.

Iris giggled. “Of course, that’s okay, Flora. It will be nice to work with you on the next puzzle, despite you know,” she gestured around vaguely, “everything.”

Flora nodded, smiling. “You’re right.”

“Well, that makes it easier then, if Flora and Iris are going together,” Yuki said, already doing the math in her head. “So, we just need a combination where one and eight go together, right?”

Flora and Iris checked their bracelets at the same time. It was easy to forget their numbers with everything else that was going on.

“Yep.” They both confirmed at the same time.

With Yuki and a few others working it out too, they all came to one possible combination.

“That means we get to go together!” Neptune grinned to his brother. Hikaru grinned in return.

With that settled, the team decide to transmit to their siblings, so they were all on the same page.

“Great!” Clover seemed more upbeat now that they were making progress. “Let’s go!”

Ennea giggled. “Glad to see you’re in high spirits, Clover.”

Just as Flora was walking towards her door, however, she heard Luke’s voice.

_ Flora, we have a bit of a situation. You see, we’d already worked out who was going through each of the doors before you talked to us. The two combinations we both have are different, so we need to come to an agreement. _

She stopped in her tracks, and Iris almost bumped into her.

“Flora, are you okay?”

Iris’ voice shook her from her thoughts. She turned around sheepishly. “Yeah, sorry. Luke just said his team have already decided who should go through the doors here, but their groups are different from ours.”

There were a few groans and sighs of annoyance as the other kids nearby listened in. They didn’t want to have to wait any longer to get going and get out of this creepy room.

Flora smiled apologetically. “Sorry, it won’t take long.”

Turning away to roll her eyes, she walked away from the rest. Her team was supposed to be the ones helping them. They should be following their orders, not the other way around!

She sighed, frustrated, and began to talk to Luke. It seemed some of her irritation was spilling in from her thoughts.

_ Luke! You’re supposed to wait until we tell you what to do! If you’d just waited, we wouldn’t be in this mess right now! _

Luke took a while to respond. Flora hoped she hadn’t upset him, but regardless, she still didn’t regret what she had said. She was so close to being able to spend more time with Iris, and now that could be ruined.

Luke said something about there being siblings on his team who really wanted to stay together. Flora could understand that, but she  _ also  _ had siblings. Yes, they weren’t as upset when they were separated before, but Luke didn’t need to know that.

_ Well, we also have siblings on our team, and this is the only way they can be together. They were also very upset when they were separated. _

Flora could imagine Luke cupping his chin in thought.  _ The little girl, Akane, really wants to be with her brother. She sobbed when we were reunited a while back, and she was the first to speak up about who she wanted to go with. This is the most vocal she has been the entire time I’ve been with her, so I know how much this means to her. I know that you also have siblings, but if you saw how Akane acted, you would want her to be paired with her brother too. _

Flora pressed her lips into a thin line. He did bring up a good point. If Akane was as emotional as Luke claimed, she would have to lie to make him change his mind. She winced thinking about what the professor would say if he were to hear her, but she tried to push him out of her mind.

_ The siblings on my team are just the same! They’re two boys the same age as each other, so they must be as close as Akane and her brother! They were really sad when they realised they couldn’t be together. Why aren’t you listening to me?! _

Flora realised she was letting her anger get the better of her, resulting in pathetic arguments, but she couldn’t let Luke win. She didn’t want to be separated from Iris again. She didn’t even know why she cared so much, but she did. Perhaps it was some sort of desperate need for friendship. 

Whenever the professor and Luke left her alone to go on an adventure, Flora was left alone in the professor’s apartment. All she could do was sit and wait for them to return. There were books, of course, to amuse herself with, but she didn’t know anyone in London to talk to. Dean Delmona and Dr. Schrader would talk to her if she was at the university, but they weren’t her friends. They wouldn’t care about her if she wasn’t related to Professor Layton. No one would, in fact.

_ Flora? Are you okay? _

Flora had begun to cry. She wasn’t sure if he knew, not knowing exactly how the morphogenetic field worked, but she hoped he hadn’t read her thoughts just now. It would be embarrassing.

She sniffed, wiping her eyes. This might be best to bring up after they get out of here- No,  _ when  _ they get out of here. She would save Luke and the others if it was the last thing she did! It was all she was good for, anyway. And that meant making a decision.

_ Fine. Your siblings can go together. Whatever. I just want to get out of here. _

There was hesitation on Luke’s end. How much had she accidentally transmitted to him, if at all?

_ Oh, alright. Thank you, Flora. I’m sure the two boys will get to be together soon. _

_ Yeah… _

Sensing that this conversation was over, Flora walked back over to the group, not caring if her face was red or splotchy. As she said to Luke, she just wanted to get this over with.

“We’re going with Luke’s combination, if you remember it.” Her voice was flat, devoid of emotion. She felt exhausted after that argument. She didn’t think she’d argued that much in her life. It was unbecoming of a lady, after all.

If anyone noticed the change in her attitude, no one said anything. Iris, however, gave her a sympathetic smile, which lifted Flora’s spirits just a little.

A few of the kids seemed to have forgotten so after some reminding, the three groups made their way to their respective doors. As Flora walked to door seven, a thought popped into her head.  _ At least, I won’t be with Clover this time.  _ She bit back a grin. Every cloud had a silver lining, it seemed.

All nine of them scanned their bracelets onto the now working scanners.

Neptune, Noel, and Yuki simultaneously pulled the levers of their respective doors. Flora took a deep breath as her door opened. She nodded to the other two teams in turn, then stepped inside.


	14. Chapter 14

The doors shut after nine seconds, and their three bracelets began to beep. The eighty-one seconds had started counting down.

Flora felt her heart hammering in her chest, but she knew she couldn’t just stand there, waiting for it to stop. That was the last thing she wanted.

“I see the DEAD! It’s over there!” Neptune shouted, pointing down the corridor.

There was a set of double doors, and to the left was the DEAD.

“Let’s go!” Ennea shouted, already running over there.

Flora and Neptune were close behind, and soon enough, the three of them had scanned their bracelets and pulled the lever.

Flora settled into the sudden quiet, trying to slow her heart rate. “That doesn’t get any easier,” she panted.

“If I’m being honest, I don’t want it to,” Ennea said. “I don’t want to get used to the idea that I could die two minutes.”

Flora shrugged. “That makes sense.”

With imminent death no longer looming over them, they could properly survey their surroundings. There was only one door to go through which had a plaque above it, reading: Operating Room.

“I hope there isn’t someone in there,” Flora shuddered.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Ennea smiled.

“Yeah,” Neptune agreed. “We can’t just stay here anyway, wondering. We have to go in and solve the puzzle.”

The two girls nodded in agreement and helped Neptune in pushing the doors open.

What greeted them was a curtain. Not very exciting, but it was not knowing what was behind it that made Flora nervous.

“What if there’s a body in there?”

Neptune smiled at her. “Well, we’re just gonna have to find out.”

“I guess so…” Flora mumbled.

The three cautiously made their way around the partition, and Flora squeaked.

“I told you! That’s a body!”

Ennea crept towards it, her brows furrowed, and Flora tried her hardest not to pull her back.

She started giggling. “Relax! It’s not real, look. It’s plastic.” She knocked on its stomach for good measure.

Flora breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh, thank goodness.”

“See, nothing to worry about!”

With Flora now calm, they all took their time looking around the room. There were shelves full of medicine, tools and equipment most likely used for operations. What caught Flora’s eye though was something covered in a sheet.

“I wonder what’s under there,” she said to no one in particular.

Ennea shrugged. “I guess we’ll have to look.”

Neptune frowned, staying still while the two girls walked over to the sheet. “Alright, but what are we supposed to do here? How do we escape? If we’re the ones who are supposed to help the other team, shouldn’t there be some sort of clue?”

Flora frowned. She’d been too focussed on the sheet to think about what the puzzle was here. “Hm, I’m not sure. But it would be too easy if we were just given the clues right away. I’m sure we have to do some working out ourselves.”

Neptune gave a bashful grin. “You’re right. I just have no idea where to start.”

“How about we start with this sheet?” Ennea grinned. It seemed she was itching to see what was underneath it.

“Um, sure.” Neptune finally joined the girls over the other side of the room.

Flora and Ennea pulled off the sheet to find yet another identical operating table. This one, however, had a mannequin’s head and just one arm.

“This one’s a woman,” Flora muttered. “Her name’s Lucy, apparently.”

“What’s this though?” Neptune was pointing at a wooden box that showed some numbers. “It looks like some sort of scale?”

Ennea followed his finger. “Yeah, it does. I think it shows how much she weighs. Not that much with only two body parts, I guess.”

Flora shivered. She knew now that these weren’t real people, but it all still made her uncomfortable.

Meanwhile, Neptune had gone over to the other table to check something. He was coming back over before Flora had even realized he’d left.

“That guy mannequin has the same box next to him.”

Ennea frowned. “Do we have to do something with the scales then?”

“Maybe we need to make them weigh the same?” Flora offered.

“Maybe, but she'll need to be a whole person first before we do that.”

“We can probably find other mannequin pieces around the room,” Neptune said.

“Well, let’s get started then!”

Apart from a fake chest on the desk that must belong to Lucy, there was nothing to see at surface level, so the three knew they had to look harder. 

Neptune was looking with interest at the medical mannequin while Flora and Ennea took a glance at the many medicine bottles on the walls. Ennea had said there probably wasn’t anything important in them, but Flora insisted they looked anyway. Besides, they had found a fake chest beside them, so there could be more important things on this side.

“Hey, there’s something sticking out of this mannequin.”

Ennea immediately ran over to Neptune once he had spoken, and Flora followed. It seemed there was nothing important on that side of the room now - apart from Lucy, of course - but she had to remind herself that it wasn’t a waste of time. She would have been so angry at herself if they hadn’t checked and there  _ had  _ been something important.

“How do we get it out?” Ennea asked as she gave one of the lungs a sharp tug. “Damn it, it won’t budge.”

Flora was watching from afar, leaning against a table that had surgical tools. She looked down absentmindedly until her eyes fell on some forceps.

“Oh!”

Ennea and Neptune turned around.

“Did you find something, Flora?” Ennea asked.

“Um, we could use these forceps, maybe, on that mannequin.”

Neptune grinned. “Great idea! Pass me those, will you?”

He held out his hands as if to gesture Flora to throw them. She hesitated - what if she hurt him? - then did so. He caught them deftly, to her relief, and he pulled out the lung.

“Right,” he muttered. He tried to pull out the thing inside but with no luck. He sighed. “Now, what? Whatever’s inside there is stuck.”

From where Flora was standing, she could easily see a scalpel on the table next to Ennea. She was surprised Ennea hadn’t noticed it yet.

Ennea was looking at Flora already, so she pointed to the table. Ennea frowned then turned to see the scalpel. She laughed it off, but Flora and Neptune could see her blushing. They shared a smirk.

“Oh, how didn’t I see that? Sorry.”

“No worries,” Neptune smiled at her. “This will work though. Good job, Flora.”

“Uh, you’re welcome.” Flora had to look away before she began to blush too.

Soon enough, they found that there had been a key inside that lung.

“Is this a key to those other doors we saw on our way in?” Ennea wondered.

Flora hadn’t noticed the other doors, having been too scared about possibly seeing a body in this room. However, she nodded anyway. She didn’t want to admit how scared she had really been to the others.

“Nice! I’ll go and check them.” She grabbed the key from Neptune’s hand and rushed off.

The two of them heard a door unlock then a cheer.

“Try the other door!” Neptune called before Ennea ran back.

“Oh, right!”

They saw her jog past the gap in the curtains and turn the other lock. That one unlocked too.

Flora and Neptune cheered too once Ennea had joined them again.

“How about we split up?” Neptune asked. “Are you girls okay with that?”

“Sure,” Ennea shrugged.

Flora wasn’t so sure, but as long as she wasn’t alone, she knew she would be okay. So she nodded.

“Cool. I can go in the room to the left of here, and you two can go in the one on the right. Shout if you need help.”

“Okay.”

“See you in a bit.”

Neptune was already walking away from the other two, and Ennea quickly took Flora’s arm to lead her into the room to their right. It seemed neither of them wanted to waste time.

The two girls found themselves in what looked like a study. There were a lot of chemicals on shelves but also books on the shelves below. They made a beeline for the desk in the middle, however, since there was something a lot more interesting there.

“A safe?” Flora asked, noticing the keypad on the side.

“Oh, look, there’s a note. It must be a clue to the code. Like in the kitchen, remember?”

Flora nodded. She definitely did remember. “So the other team probably don’t have this information then.”

“Oh, yeah. I didn’t think of that. We should tell them.”

Once Ennea and Flora had transmitted the information to their siblings, Flora reread the note. It read: Iron = 1, Salt = 2, Water = 3, Carbon dioxide = ?, Ammonia = ?, Ethanol = ?. She knew there must be something connecting the words and numbers, but she couldn’t figure it out.

“Maybe the answer is around here somewhere.” Flora was talking to herself now as she walked away from the table and began to look at all the chemicals on the shelves.

She saw a can labelled CO2, a bottle labelled NaCl, and another labelled Fe.

“What were the words again on that sheet of paper?” Flora asked, the puzzle pieces beginning to fit together.

Ennea read them out: iron, salt, water, carbon dioxide, ammonia, ethanol.

“I think the numbers next to them have something to do with their elements,” Flora said. She said this quietly, worrying she was on the wrong track, but Ennea seemed to understand.

She nodded as she worked it out in her head. “Yeah, I think you’re right. Water has three elements - two hydrogen, one oxygen - and carbon dioxide has three - one carbon, two oxygen.”

Flora nodded. “Iron only has one element. They are all dotted around here so they must be connected. I wonder if there’s one for… what were they again?”

“Ammonia and ethanol.”

“Thank you.”

Ennea watched as Flora looked around the shelves, sometimes on the tips of her toes. She had seen Flora as a quiet girl. She seemed nice, of course, but she wasn’t sure how much help she would be. Ennea saw her as the kind of girl who would just go along with what everyone else said and not contribute much. But now, she realized she was wrong. Flora had actually helped a lot so far in their… situation. It helped that, somehow, her and Luke could communicate freely. However, Flora was more than capable without him. Ennea was ashamed that she had only just figured that out for herself.

The door to their room opened, making both girls jump. They were both in their own heads for very different reasons, not that Ennea would ever admit that.

Neptune must have noticed. He grinned sheepishly. “Sorry I made you jump. I didn’t find much in the other room. Just this diagram. I had another look around the main room with the mannequins, but there’s definitely nothing else there.”

“What’s in the other room?” Flora asked, curiously.

“Three lockers with three different colors on them. I can’t open them, but there must be a fancy way to do it. There’s a beaker in front of them with a laser behind that. No idea what it means yet. I found this though, look.”

He passed the clipboard to Ennea, and she frowned. Flora was peeking over her shoulder.

“What are all these numbers?” Ennea asked. “Are they weights?”

“I think so,” Neptune nodded. “I had a look on the scales again in the main room, and the two weights of the mannequins are different to these.”

“Well, Lucy doesn’t have all her parts yet,” Flora said.

“Yeah, but I feel like this will be important later on when we do find them all.”

The two girls nodded, and Ennea passed the clipboard back.

“I think we should tell the other team in case they don’t have this.”

The three of them transmitted the diagram as well as they could. It was difficult to memorise all the numbers in the right places, but they hoped it was good enough. Flora knew anyway that Luke could let her know if they need more specific measurements later on. She was grateful Luke had this power, like her. She would hate it if she was completely cut off from him, like the others.

With that out of the way, Flora quickly got back to looking at the shelves. In no time at all, she had figured out that ammonia, NH3, had four elements and ethanol, C2H5OH, had nine.

“So the passcode is 349?” Ennea said, checking the note one more time.

“Yep!” Flora said happily. She wouldn’t admit it, but she felt proud of herself for figuring that out all on her own.

“Awesome.”

She punched in the numbers and found a fake arm and a fake heart in the safe. 

“Ew.” Flora screwed up her face as she looked into the safe. “Please tell me that’s fake.”

“Of course it is!” Ennea knocked on it like she’d done before. “Plastic.”

Flora breathed a sigh of relief.

Neptune, however, was looking at the bottles by the side of the safe. Flora was embarrassed to realize that she hadn’t even taken a second look at them.

“These might be the liquids that go in the beakers in the other room.”

“Probably,” Ennea said. “How about you go with Flora and do that? I’ll go and assemble Lucy.”

“Why do I need to go in?” Flora frowned.

“Well, you’re clearly the smartest one here. Neptune will need you if he gets stuck.”

“Hey!” Neptune chuckled. “I’m smart too, you know.”

“Yeah, and so are you!” Flora said, smiling at Ennea. “You knew about that hexidecimal stuff in the last room.”

Ennea grinned, blushing once more. “I mean, yeah, but only because of my mom.”

“Still, we couldn’t have worked it out without you.”

“Stop it…” 

Ennea was smiling, but it didn’t seem to reach her eyes anymore. Flora decided to drop it. Maybe she had gone too far. She knew how it felt to not believe compliments people gave you.

“Anyway,” Neptune cleared his throat before the silence could become awkward. “We should get out of here.”

“Sure.”

With Ennea in the main room putting together the pieces they had found for Lucy so far, Neptune and Flora made their way into the other room.

“There isn’t really much in this room apart from the locker puzzle and that diagram. Oh, and also the exit.”

Flora couldn’t help but giggle. The way he had said that so casually was amusing. It did seem to be the exit. There was another symbol on the door like the others they had seen. Flora wasn’t sure which one this was though. Besides, it wasn’t important.

Flora stood by while Neptune poured in the blue and red liquids separately and turned on the laser each time. She then opened the two lockers when he prompted her. 

The blue and red lockers had two legs in them. Flora felt weird holding them, but she propped them against a wall all the same.

“So, purple…” Neptune muttered. “Oh!”

Flora smirked. She had figured it out too, but she hadn’t wanted to steal his moment.

“I just pour them both in at once, right?”

“Yep.”

Neptune noticed her expression and laughed. “You knew that already, didn’t you?”

Flora looked at the floor, suddenly embarrassed. “Well, yeah. I just thought you’d prefer to work it out for yourself.”

“Well, I appreciate that.” He smiled at her then turned back around to pour the two liquids in.

He gave it a stir with his finger then turned on the laser. The last door unlocked, and Flora opened it to find a stomach.

“Do we have all the pieces now?” Flora asked as she walked over to where she had put the legs.

“I think so.” 

Neptune followed her and picked up the legs before Flora could. He could tell she was going to try and carry them all herself. Flora smiled to him, a silent thanks.

They walked back to the main room to meet Ennea, who was looking at the diagram again.

“Hey, we’re back,” Neptune waved with his free hand.

“Hey,” she smiled. “I still don’t understand what all this is about.” She pointed at the clipboard.

“I’m sure we’ll figure it out when we put Lucy together,” Flora said, slotting the stomach into the chest that Ennea had put down before.

“Probably.”

The three of them waited, but nothing happened. Not that they were surprised. Nothing in these tasks so far were as easy as that.

“Maybe it’s the wrong weight?” Ennea suggested. “That’s probably why we have these diagrams or whatever.”

Neptune nodded. “I was thinking… we could swap her body parts with John’s? Each part seems to weigh a different amount.”

The other two agreed, so they got to work. A few times, Flora was interrupted as Luke needed extra information. She apologized each time, but Ennea and Neptune didn’t mind in the slightest. At least they all knew now that the other team was at the same stage as them.

Finally, with every part swapped apart from the heads and hearts, they heard a click nearby.

Flora quickly went over to John’s scale and found the scale had opened up to reveal a key. When she looked at the symbol on it, it was the same as the one on the door leading to the exit.

“I think this is the key to get out.”

“Oh, awesome!” Ennea grinned. “Let’s get out of here.”

“What she said,” Neptune smiled.

The three of them almost ran to the locker room, and Flora unlocked the door.

* * *

Luke watched the other groups walk through the numbered doors, almost wishing he didn’t have to go through this all again. But he knew he didn’t have a choice. The alternative was to wait until the time was up (five more hours, if he remembered correctly) and drown. He’d rather not, thank you.

“Come on, Luke!”

Nona’s shouts finally persuaded Luke to run inside too. He didn’t want to kill the two girls just because he was scared.

The doors finally closed and then began the incessant beeping. Luke looked at his bracelet, which now showed a pink skull behind the number 1.

He tried to steel himself, reminding himself of his adventures with the professor. If he just pretended it was the same, then he would have no trouble keeping calm. The only problem was that the professor wasn’t here. He was on his own.

“The DEAD is over there!” Jasmine shouted, pointing at a set of double doors down the corridor.

“Right,” Luke muttered to himself.

He was close behind Jasmine and Nona as they ran, and they all slammed their hands onto the DEAD. Nona pulled the lever down, and the beeping stopped.

“Phew.”

The three of them felt the relief flood in. Luke’s heart was still racing in his chest, and he had to lean against the wall to try and calm down.

“I hated that,” Jasmine panted. “It’s awful knowing you could die if you don’t get to the DEAD quickly enough.”

“Yeah, I know,” Nona said sympathetically. “But we didn’t die!”

Jasmine managed a weak smile. “Yeah. We’re still here.”

Luke glanced up as he saw Nona looking at him curiously.

He couldn’t hide his pink cheeks as Nona continued to stare. “What is it?”

She grinned. “It’s just funny that we’ve been grouped together twice now. It’s like we’re destined to be together or something.”

Luke began to laugh, realizing how silly that sounded. “I don’t think so. It’s about the numbers, right? You’re number nine so you can be in any group, and it won’t affect the digital root. It’s just a coincidence that you’ve been with me twice.”

“Well, when you say it like that, it doesn’t sound as mysterious,” Nona pouted.

Luke chuckled. “Sorry. I guess I’m just a logical person.”

“Well, that’s exactly the thing we’ll need to escape this ship,” Jasmine smiled. “I’m glad you’re on my team.”

Once again, he couldn’t hide his blush. He’d never been good at taking compliments. “Oh, um, thank you.”

Once that conversation was over and Luke’s face had returned to its normal color, they realized that the only door here - apart from the numbered door - were the doors in front of them.

“Operating room.” Luke read the plaque above the door.

“Ooh, I hope there’s someone being operated on in there,” Nona grinned. “That would be so cool!”

“What?! That would be awful! What are you talking about?”

She giggled. “I was kidding, Luke! I don’t really mean that.”

Luke scowled as he heard Jasmine laughing too. He wished he wasn’t such a scaredy-cat all the time. “Right… Um, shall we go in then?”

The three of them pushed open the double doors. Most of the room was separated by a curtain. It was pretty disappointing, but they knew there must be something more interesting behind it.

Luke was more cautious leaning around the curtain than the girls, who had no problem walking out from behind.

Luke peeked around the curtain once he saw there was no problem. That was a mistake.

He yelped. “There really  _ is  _ a body here. Jasmine, don’t!”

Jasmine had already walked over to the body and was touching it. She giggled. “Luke, calm down. It’s not a real body. It’s plastic, like a mannequin.”

“Oh…” Luke’s face flushed bright red as he quickly realized that of course it wasn’t real. Why would it be?

Nona smiled at him. “It’s okay, Luke. I could see how you’d think it was real from far away.”

“Yeah…” He supposed Nona was just being nice, but he appreciated the sentiment.

After the three of them had quietened down, they took a chance to look around the room. Apart from the doll on the operating table, there were other tables and shelves housing medicine and tools. Jasmine had also noticed another door going out of this room. She was curious to see what was behind there.

“Shall we get going then?” Jasmine asked.

“Sure,” Nona muttered, a hand to her chin, “but what are we even supposed to do?”

“I don’t know,” Luke admitted. “I’m sure the other team will have some extra information though to help us.”

“That’s true. Well, let’s get started then!”

Jasmine had already begun to leave the room. “I’m gonna check on those other doors and see if we need a key or anything.”

“Other doors?” Luke had been so worried about the body that he hadn’t even noticed them.

“Yeah. They’re just round the corner. I won’t be a minute.”

Nona nodded to Jasmine, and she left.

“I’m guessing you don’t want to check under that sheet, Luke?” She asked. Despite her teasing nature from before, she genuinely sounded sympathetic here. Luke appreciated that.

“I’d rather not, if that’s alright. I’ll check those tables over there and see if there’s anything we can use.” He pointed to the two tables with surgical tools on.

“That’s alright. I’ll get the sheet then.”

The only tools without rust on them were a scalpel and a pair of forceps. Luke pocketed those and watched Nona inspect whatever was on that table. Meanwhile, Jasmine had reported back to say both doors that lead to other rooms were locked.

“It’s another mannequin,” Nona informed her teammates, “but most of her parts are missing. She only has a head and one arm.”

“Is that hers too, then?” Jasmine asked, pointing to the side of Nona where a fake chest was sitting on the desk.

“Oh, probably.” Nona walked over and grabbed the chest. It slotted in easily. “There’s a space for something else here though. Maybe a heart.”

Luke squirmed. He knew it would also be plastic, but it was uncomfortable to think about.

To take his mind off it, he thought about the locked rooms that Jasmine had tried. “Do you think the rest of her is in those other rooms?”

“Maybe,” Jasmine shrugged. “We need a key though. Have you found one?”

“We’ve only just started looking,” Luke admitted.

“I’m sure there’s one around here somewhere.”

And it turned out that Jasmine was right. After some more looking, Luke found that there could be a key in the lung of the medical mannequin. Luke took out the lung with the forceps, but Jasmine cut out the key with the scalpel since she was the oldest. Luke tried his best not to be offended by that, but it was difficult.

In the end, they unlocked both doors, and they split off into both rooms to save time. Luke volunteered to go on his own to the room on the left to try and redeem himself. The two girls laughed at his determination but let him go nonetheless.

However, he quickly found that there was nothing in the room apart from three lockers and a beaker with a laser attached to it. There was clearly nothing to put in the beaker so he joined the girls in the other room. They didn’t seem to be having much luck.

“There’s a safe here to unlock, but there’s literally nothing to help us!” Nona was getting quite irritated by this. Jasmine didn’t look too happy either.

Luke immediately stepped in. “Nona, Jasmine, I’m sure-”

He stopped mid-sentence. He was getting a transmission from Flora again.

_ The clue to the safe is ‘iron equals one, salt equals two, water equals three, carbon dioxide equals question-mark, ammonia equals question-mark, and ethanol equals question-mark.’ No idea what it means yet, sorry. _

Luke looked to the two girls. Nona nodded, but Jasmine seemed clueless.

“Did you two just get some information? Was it the clue?”

“Yeah. Didn’t your brother tell you?” Luke asked.

She shook her head. “No.”

“Well, maybe, he went into the other room like I did.”

“Maybe.”

They relayed the information to Jasmine then began to think about what this clue might mean. They were interrupted once again by some more information. It was a bit fuzzy for Luke, but it looked like Flora was trying to project a diagram to him. He could see the two mannequins and some numbers, but there were gaps. Either some numbers were missing on the diagram the other team had or Flora had forgotten some. Thankfully, he would be able to clarify that with her later on, if need be.

Nona had written down the safe clue on her hand with a pen she had found in her pocket. She was grateful she had done that since her thoughts were muddled now by two very different pieces of information. Jasmine and Luke felt the same so it was handy to refer back to Nona’s note.

The three of them worked it out together in the end. Luke felt somewhat ashamed that he didn’t figure it out any quicker, but he was shaken out of his thoughts when he saw what was inside the safe once Nona had opened it.

He let out a shiver, despite knowing it was a fake heart. He could deal with the arm, but the heart...

Nona smiled to him sympathetically. “I’ll take this away then, shall I? You and Jasmine can go back to that other room.”

Luke nodded. “That’s fine. Maybe these bottles here can help us in the other room. There’s a beaker, see. We can probably pour these liquids in.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Jasmine smiled.

The two of them went into the other room and quickly figured out what to do. To Luke’s disappointment, Jasmine was in charge of the chemicals and Luke opened the doors to save time. 

Luke was quick, however, to point out that she had to mix blue and red together to make purple. He knew it was rude to interrupt, considering that he could tell she was about to say that herself, but he didn’t want her to take all the credit.

Jasmine laughed. “You’re right, Luke. Well done.”

Luke pouted. “No need to be patronizing.”

He quickly shook that off though as the two of them carried the remaining mannequin parts into the main room. He was eager to solve this puzzle and move on.

Jasmine and Luke quickly slotted the remaining parts to the woman mannequin until she was complete. They waited, but nothing happened.

“Huh, weird,” Luke muttered.

“Do you think that diagram our siblings have has something to do with it?” Nona asked.

“Yeah,” Luke said. “I’ve forgotten it now though.”

She giggled. “You can just ask your sister!”

“Oh, yeah. Of course.”

Luke confirmed with Flora that they were supposed to swap the mannequin’s body parts until they reach the desired weights for both. So with her help, Luke, Jasmine, and Nona were able to solve the puzzle.

They heard a click nearby John’s bed, and the three of them rushed over to see what had come out.

“Is this the key to the exit?” Nona asked.

“I think so,” Luke answered. “There was another door in the room Jasmine and I went in, and I think the symbols match too.”

“Great. Well, what are we waiting for?”


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> there are curious village spoilers and lost future spoilers in this chapter! i have updated the tags, but i thought i would mention it again here

They opened the door to a plain, white hallway. Despite knowing that they were probably far from the finish line, Flora couldn’t help but feel disappointed.

That disappointment was soon forgotten though, as she heard footsteps running around the corner.

The nine of them stood in shock for a moment before they began to grin. They all greeted each other happily. Flora gave an awkward wave to Iris who returned her greeting with a smile.

“So I guess we’re back together again then,” she said.

Flora grinned. “Yeah, I guess so.”

Soon afterwards, they decided they should move out of this hallway. No one had heard the chimes for a while, but they assumed they wouldn’t have long left now. They felt like they’d been trapped here forever.

Picking up a map for C Deck on the way, they made their way to the only door they could see. It was a large grey door, which looked a lot like a numbered door.

It opened easily, to the confusion of all of them, and they were brought out into the hospital room once again. The other side of the door had no number.

“Oh! So that’s where that door leads!” Clover smiled, seemingly happy to have solved another puzzle.

“Well, that’s another puzzle solved,” Yuki smiled.

Flora bit back a laugh. Unless she was going crazy stuck in this building, she could’ve sworn she heard her father’s voice say that along with Yuki. A thought hit her, wiping her smile right off her face.  _ Would he ever save her from this place? Would he save Luke? _

She hoped he would go to Luke and his friends first since they were clearly in the most danger. But another, more selfish part of her wanted him to rescue her too. It would make for a change, at least.

While Flora had been in her thoughts, the rest of the group had been debating about what to do next. It seemed that the other two teams had found a key and a key card, which would open up more routes for them. Ennea had wondered if they could use the Jupiter key again for another door somewhere else.

“Flora…”

Flora was pulled out of her thoughts at the sound of the voice. Her cheeks flushed pink when she noticed Clover was tapping her foot, impatiently.

“Come on! We’ve got to go!”

She couldn’t stop herself from rolling her eyes. “Fine. I’m coming.”

Apparently, the other seven people had gone ahead of Flora and Clover and had opened a door at the bottom of the hallway. It came out to the central staircase where they were before. Flora looked around, confused, until she realized that there must be a reason for them being there.

“I assume the other keys we have are for doors around here?” Flora asked.

“Yep,” Ennea smiled, holding two key cards. “We figured that out while you were daydreaming.”

Flora blushed again. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be! I was only kidding. These key cards look like they’re for the elevators, and this other key we have is probably for a door somewhere around here.”

“Right,” Flora smiled, awkwardly. “Thanks for explaining.”

Her embarrassment was quickly forgotten while they worked out who was going to go where, using the maps they had found so far to help them.

Since their bracelet numbers didn’t matter this time, the kids all picked whoever they wanted to be with.

Without being too obvious, Flora sidled up to Iris and asked if she wanted to pair up. Of course, Iris said yes. Ennea seemed to want to join them both too, to Flora’s surprise.

Yuki made a group with Clover and Noel, and River went with Hikaru and Neptune.   
After some debating, Yuki’s group would take the Earth key to inspect the door on A Deck. Flora’s group would take the Saturn key card to see where the elevators behind the staircase went, and River’s group would take the Mercury key card for the other set of elevators on C Deck.

Before they split up, Clover had the very touching thought of asking if the other team on the passenger liner could rest while their team searched for the doors.

“I know my brother can look after himself,” Clover said, her voice now small, “but I’m worried about him. I also don’t think it’s fair to make them look around for the doors anyway if they don’t have maps like we do.”

Flora was surprised at Clover’s suggestion, but no one had any objections. 

They sent a message to the other team explaining their situation, then the three groups split up. 

Flora, Ennea, and Iris went straight to the elevators behind the central staircase. Sure enough, the symbol on the card reader matched the one on the card Ennea held.

She swiped it and pulled the lever. Before long, the elevator came up to the top and the doors opened for them. However, she was frowning.

“What is it?” Iris asked.

“Flora, didn’t you say D Deck was flooded?” Ennea turned to her.

Flora almost forgot that she had visited D Deck. It felt like such a long time ago.

“Oh, um, yes, I did.”

Iris nodded in agreement. She had gone to check on Flora, after all.

“So, why doesn’t the elevator have any water in?”

Neither of the girls had an explanation for that. It did seem strange.

“Maybe try and send it down and back up again to make sure,” Iris offered. Flora felt better knowing that she wasn’t the only one who was nervous about this. She’d felt too embarrassed to bring it up.

“Sure. That’s a good idea.”

Ennea pulled the lever twice with a pause in between, and the elevator came back up again, as dry as it was before.

“See, nothing to worry about,” Ennea smiled.

Flora and Iris finally seemed convinced, so the three of them took the elevator down to E Deck.

They walked out the elevator to be greeted with an iron bar to the left, so they went right. There was a corridor to walk down, but they didn’t even need to walk any further to see what was at the end.   
What they saw filled them with equal measures of hope and dread.

“Door 6,” murmured Ennea.

“Maybe the other routes will lead the others to doors as well,” Iris said. “There can’t be more left after that.”

Flora thought back to what they had faced only a few hours ago. To her, it seemed like a lifetime. The first doors they came across were 4 and 5. The next doors were 3, 7, 8 that they had found in the hospital room. Her group had just found door 6, and if the other two groups had found doors themselves…

“If one group hasn’t already found the ninth door, we might find it very soon.”

Ennea and Iris considered Flora’s words. None of them wanted to think about it. Will all nine of them really be able to escape?

“Well,” Ennea sighed, “we won’t know if they’ve found it already if we don’t go back to meet them.”

Flora nodded. “You’re right.”

So they made their way back up to C Deck - not before Iris picked up a map for E Deck pinned up on the wall - and joined the other kids.

They exchanged information. Apparently, the Earth key lead to door 1, and the Mercury key card lead to door 2. Those doors grouped with the Saturn key card leading to door 6 left the ninth door. Just like Flora thought.

A tense silence fell over them. None of them wanted to say it; that the end was near. They would be able to escape, yes, but would they  _ all  _ be able to? Some of them may be abandoned here, and that would be the same for the team on the passenger liner.

Thoughts of Luke drowning along with some of his teammates pushed themselves to the forefront of Flora’s mind, no matter how much she tried to ignore them.

The group was pulled out of their thoughts by three loud chimes.

“It’s three in the morning,” Clover said, her eyes wide with fear.

“Three hours left,” Noel breathed, who had a hand on Clover’s shoulder. “Not long, guys.”

“Right,” Ennea nodded. “So we need to figure out who’s going where.”

Flora raised her hand as if she was at school, then quickly lowered it when she realized how silly she looked.

Ennea smirked at her. “Yes?”

Flora giggled. “Um, sorry, I just realized something. We need to tell the other team that we found those doors, right? Then after we do that, I could just talk to Luke and come to some sort of agreement. I don’t want us to argue again. It might also save time.”

She blushed when she realized everyone was looking at her. She cleared her throat, awkwardly. “Or, I mean, unless anyone has a better idea.”

Iris giggled. “Don’t be like that! That was a great idea. We should do it.”

There was agreement from the rest of the group, and Flora couldn’t stop her cheeks from burning. She almost couldn’t believe she had contributed an idea, let alone something everyone else agreed with.

The group all sent the information they had found to their siblings. Flora wasn’t sure why they all had to do it, but it must be routine by this point. It was something to cling to amidst all this confusion and chaos. She would be lying if it didn’t help her too.

She walked away from the rest for a little privacy, then tried to communicate once again with Luke. She was finding it easier each time.

Admittedly, both of them had to check in a few times with the rest of their respective teams to make sure they had the right combinations, but it didn’t take long for either of them to work it out. Perhaps, it was because this was the third time that they had to work with the digital root, but they both knew they were good with math. They had Professor Layton to thank for that.

Of course, they had the same issue as before. If Flora let Luke have his way, Hikaru and Neptune would have to be separated, but if the reverse were to happen, the two siblings of Luke’s team would be split up. 

Flora thought back to their earlier argument. She still felt guilty about getting angry with Luke, even if she eventually let Luke have his way.

_ We can go with your combination again. It seems that the brother and sister in your group care for each other a lot. _

To her surprise, Luke didn’t accept her offer.  _ We had my combination last time, so I would feel bad doing that again! I’m sure Akane and Aoi will be okay being split up one last time. I’m sure it won’t be for long. _

Flora understood this, but she still felt bad. She wouldn’t even be with Iris this time anyway, so was there a point in entertaining this? She suddenly remembered about Hikaru and Neptune; the people she was supposed to care about. Why was she being so selfish?

_ Flora? I don’t want to rush you, but we have three hours left. We need to get going. _

She snapped back to reality, feeling awful.  _ Right. Sorry. We can go with my combination. I think Hikaru and Neptune would like that. _

Luke agreed, so Flora wasted no time going back to her group and telling them what Luke and she had figured out.

Hikaru and Neptune seemed ecstatic to be paired together, and the rest of the group seemed happy with the choices too.    
Each group was given the correct key or key card, and they separated into three clear groups so no one was confused about where they should be going.   
Flora wasn’t so happy to be with Clover, but she didn’t say anything. However, Clover even smiled a little to both of them when she joined Flora and River off to the side.

Before Flora could process this, Ennea asked if they were all ready to go.

Everyone nodded, and they were off. Flora, River, and Clover climbed the stairs until they were on A Deck.   
Clover had the Earth key, so she quickly put it into the lock and opened the door. At the end of a long, straight corridor was door 1.

Flora took a deep breath, anxiety flooding in. For some reason, a sense of responsibility took over her for the first time since she had been here. Yes, Clover had been the one in charge at the very beginning, but she seemed to have mellowed out during the time they’ve been here. Flora wasn’t sure why that was, but she kind of missed it.    
River looked only just older than Clover, so she knew she was the oldest out of them all. She had to protect the others if something went wrong. It was a new feeling. 

Whenever she had been with the professor and Luke, and whoever else they met on their adventures, she was always the one being protected. Even Luke has protected her in the past. When Future Luke had kidnapped her (and she foolishly went along with it), Luke had been the first person to react and run after the two of them. Unfortunately, he had been… hampered by a plant pot, but Flora hadn’t forgotten this.   
She had spent her whole life being sheltered. Her whole childhood had consisted of being cared for by her father, and then a whole village of robots. As well as that, she had spent most of her days stuck in a tower. Even after she left St Mystere, Professor Layton had taken care of her and constantly left her behind “for her own safety”. 

Even today, she had let other people take charge in her team, even when they had been split up. She had been with Ennea for the first two puzzles, who seemed to be very good at taking charge. For the most part, it had been easier for her to just go along with what Ennea had to say.   
This would be the first time that she would have to deal with any sort of responsibility. She wasn’t quite sure if she’d be able to handle it.

Clover was tugging on Flora’s sleeve. “Hey, we’ve already scanned our bracelets. We need yours too.”

There was no sarcasm or anger in her voice, which surprised Flora once she was back in the real world. “Ah, sorry.”

She quickly scanned her own bracelet and rested her hand on the lever, realizing that she had to be the one to do it. “Are you two ready?”

Clover and River gave a short nod.

“Let’s go then.”

* * *

Luke and the two girls opened the door to a normal hallway. He wasn’t sure why, but Luke was expecting more. Usually when he solved a puzzle, he would be congratulated either by the professor or the person who had given him the puzzle. There was nothing of the sort here.

His disappointment was quickly forgotten, however, when the three of them heard footsteps rounding the corner.

“Hey!”

Luke found himself grinning as he heard Aoi’s voice. He was the first one to turn the corner.

The rest of the group turned the corner shortly after, and they all greeted each other. Even though they hadn’t been apart for long, they were all excited to be back together again.

It wasn’t long until they realized they shouldn’t dawdle. A chime hadn’t gone off for a while, but they figured there wasn’t long left now.

The nine of them made their way to the only door they could see. It was a large grey door, which looked a lot like a numbered door. There was just no number on it this time.

It opened easily, to the confusion of all of them, and they were brought out into the hospital room once again. The other side of the door had no number either.

“Oh, I guess that’s where that door leads then,” Aoi murmured.

“Another puzzle solved,” Luke grinned, earning a friendly chuckle from Light.

“That’s something your friend says, I take it?”

Luke jumped, not realizing Light was so close beside him. He tried to contain the blush rising to his cheeks. “Um, yeah, something like that,” he muttered.

The group came together at the side of the hospital room, reminiscent of the first time they had been in this room. Luke sincerely hoped that they wouldn’t have another fight like that again. He reached into his pocket and touched the four-leaf clover with his fingertips.  _ We need to trust and love, and have faith in one another. _

The nine of them shared what they had found in their respective rooms. Kenji was holding a Mercury key card from door 3, Nona held a Jupiter key found in the operating room, and Aoi had an Earth key from door 8.

“So is that all we need?” Aoi asked.

With no objections from the rest of the group, Aoi shrugged and took all three items.

“Who put you in charge?” Nona raised her eyebrows.

He rolled his eyes, but not without a smile, and pocketed the keys. “None of your business, lady. Anyway, wasn’t there a door off the side of here?” He turned to Light for confirmation.

“I think so,” Light answered. “From what I could tell, it felt like a Jupiter symbol. Do we have a key like that?”

“Yeah.” Aoi fished the Jupiter key back from his pocket. “This one should work. Let’s go then.”

They soon realized that the Jupiter door lead them back out to the central staircase.

“Huh…” Aoi muttered, mostly to himself. “Why would it bring us back here?”

Before any of the kids could figure out why they had been taken back to the start, they all got a transmission from their siblings, save from Aoi and Akane.

They were all slightly different messages, but the crux of it was the same:  _ We assume you have all found your way to the central staircase and have figured out that the keys and key cards you have are for doors and elevators branching off here. We decided there wasn’t much point in us both searching, so you guys can rest. We don’t know what lies behind these doors, so you’ll need your energy to face it. Just relax, and we’ll update you soon! _

Once the message had also been relayed to Aoi and Akane, the boy rolled his eyes.

“So we’re supposed to just sit here and do nothing for God knows how long?!” He scoffed. “As if! I’m going to look for the doors, okay?”

“But, Aoi-” Light started.

Aoi cut him off immediately. “Oh, don’t act like you care about me, Light! Nothing’s gonna happen to me, and I can’t go through any of those doors myself, unless I had a death wish.”

He laughed as a few of the kids gasped. “I was only joking. Jeez, lighten up.”

As he began to walk away, Luke called to him. He felt like he couldn’t just let him walk away. “Aoi! What’s the point in going around searching if the other team are just going to do the same? Besides, they probably have more information than us to go off of, like a map or something.” 

Aoi turned back to Luke and smirked. “It beats sitting around and doing nothing. Anyway, why would I listen to you, kid?”

Luke scowled at Aoi but didn’t say anything. He hated being called a kid more than anything, and Aoi must know that by now. Regardless, Luke had never been good at keeping his emotions under wraps. He was like an open book.

Aoi smiled at Luke - just making him more frustrated - and walked away. No one bothered to stop him again. 

“Let him do what he wants,” Light said quietly as Aoi reached the top of the central staircase and turned a corner, presumably trying to find the Earth door.

“I just hope he doesn’t take longer than the other team does,” Nona sighed. “Then he would just be wasting time.” 

She took this opportunity to sit on the floor. Once she had taken the weight off her feet, she realized how much they ached. The rest of the group followed suit, relieved to be taking a break despite knowing they probably shouldn’t.

“Ugh, it’s like we’ve been walking forever,” Akane said, voicing all the others’ thoughts.

“I don’t think it will be long now,” Light smiled to her. “We have found five doors already, and Aoi has one key and one key card in his pocket. That in total makes seven doors we will find. It can’t be much longer until we find the last door.”

He didn’t need to specify which door that was. They all knew the ninth door was the last door. Luke had been too occupied with the puzzles to think much about how they were going to escape for good. Would they all be able to go through the ninth door? He supposed not. That thought alone horrified him. 

_ Professor, please help us.  _ Luke knew that the professor didn’t have abilities like him and the rest of the children had, but he couldn’t help sending out a signal anyway.

However, Luke couldn’t have known that Hershel was nearby and, as soon as he regained consciousness, he would do anything to save Luke.

The nine children all seemed to be in their own thoughts, but three loud chimes brought them all back to reality. Those chimes could only mean one thing.

“It’s three am, so there’s three hours left.” Light said what they were all thinking.

Luke could feel the tension rising. Three hours seemed like a long time, but when it was a matter of life or death, those hours could slip away easily. He became impatient for not only Flora and her team to finish investigating, but also for Aoi to get back.

It didn’t take long for information to be relayed back to the group, to the relief of them all. The Earth key lead to door 1, the Mercury key card lead to door 2, and the Saturn key card was for door 6.

Luke was just about to ask about the Saturn key card when Nona’s eyes widened. She dug into the pockets of her dress to find said key card.

“I found this back in the kitchen. I guess I forgot I had it, sorry.”

A few of the kids nodded with sympathetic smiles. Only Aoi would be upset when he realized he could’ve easily found all the doors himself.

There was an extra message for Luke though. It seemed that Flora wanted to talk about the door combinations beforehand, so they could avoid another argument.

Luke quietly excused himself from the group, just as Aoi came back into the space, scowling. He must have found a set of elevators but not been able to access them. That was still impressive without a map though, Luke had to admit.

However, he had to tune out Aoi and Nona’s arguing to process what Flora had to say.

Both of them quickly figured out the digital root of each of the doors, but again, they had the issue of wanting their pair of siblings to stay together.

Luke assumed Flora would become angry again and insist that her siblings stay together but, to his surprise, she was a lot less fired up than before.

_ We can go with your combination again. It seems that the brother and sister in your group care for each other a lot. _

He frowned. She can’t have forgotten that she went with his combination last time, so why was she letting him have his way again? It was only fair that he let her siblings stay together this time. Besides, they’ve all figured out now that this will mostly likely be the last time they will have to split up.

_ We had my combination last time, so I would feel bad doing that again! I’m sure Akane and Aoi will be okay being split up one last time. I’m sure it won’t be for long. _

There was a long silence on Flora’s end. Luke understood that she may need to think about her decision, but he remembered how little time they had left. He hated to rush her, but he had no choice.

_ Flora? I don’t want to rush you, but we have three hours left. We need to get going. _

He got a reply almost immediately. He wondered what she had been thinking about.

_ Right. Sorry. We can go with my combination. I think Hikaru and Neptune would like that. _

Luke agreed, relieved that they could come to a decision, and returned quickly back to the group, so he could explain the situation.

When Aoi and Akane learned they were going to be split up again, they both looked disappointed. The sadness was only brief on Aoi’s face, but Luke noticed it.

Aoi, however, quickly shook off his emotions and turned to Akane, who looked like she was about to cry. He crouched down to her height and gave her a genuine smile.

“Hey, remember that we got to stay together the last time. I think the siblings on the other team deserve to be together, just like we did.” It still amazed Luke how sweet Aoi was around his sister.

Akane nodded, the smallest of smiles showing on her face. “You’re right. We’ll be together soon anyway for the last door.”

“Exactly! And the sooner we go off alone, the sooner we can reunite.”

That seemed to cheer her up.

It had worked out that Luke would be grouped with Light and Akane to go through door 1.

As Aoi gave Luke the Earth key, he sent a glare his way while Akane wasn’t looking. He also sent one to Light. Despite not being able to see, Light must have felt Aoi’s icy stare and gave a chuckle.

Aoi lowered his voice so only Luke and Light could hear. “You two better take care of my sister or it won’t be the rising water that kills you.”

Luke knew he was bluffing but even so, it sent a chill down his spine. He stuttered out his reply. “Of… of course, Aoi. Your sister… will, um, be safe with us!”

Aoi dropped his stare and grinned. “Relax, kid. I was only joking.”

“We assure you that your sister will be safe,” Light replied in turn, a lot more smoothly.

“Good. Well, see you later!” 

Aoi ran off to join his team. Luke found himself staring after him. He could never be sure if Aoi was his friend or not, and what he was really thinking.

He felt someone tug on his arm. It was Akane.

“We need to go, Luke.”

“Oh,” Luke took a while to come out of his thoughts. “Of course. Let’s go.”

The three of them made their way upstairs to A Deck and found the Earth door. According to Aoi, there was just a straight hallway and the numbered door was at the end.

He was right, it seemed.

Once they’d walked the rest of the way, Luke took a deep breath to try and expel the nerves he was beginning to feel.

“Everyone ready?” Light asked the other two.

“Yes,” Luke and Akane replied together.

Three bracelets were scanned, and Light rested his hand on the lever.

“Alright then,” he said. “Three, two, one…”

He pulled the lever and door 1 opened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i addressed in the first part of this chapter how i wrote clover at the very beginning of this fic. i think a couple of people have said it was ooc since she is only 9 in the first nonary game. i think, having seen her personality in the second nonary game, i went off that. however, i forgot that she was a lot older there. i may go back and change this at a later date and make someone else in charge. i feel like ennea would be a good fit for some reason, but i will do that after i’ve finished this fic completely


	16. Chapter 16

Flora, Clover, and River rushed through the doorway to find themselves in a room. For a moment, they were confused. It had always been a corridor before. They looked around frantically for the DEAD.

“Where is it?” Clover seemed to be panicking.

Somehow, Flora managed to keep calm. It was something her father always told Luke and her to do in situations like this. Thankfully, she remembered it now.

She tried scanning the room with a clearer mind, and she saw it.

“Over there!” Flora pointed to a door on the other side of the room. It looked identical to the door they had just passed through, but it didn’t have a number.

The three girls ran over and slammed their hands on the scanner, then Flora pulled the lever down.

Their bracelets stopped beeping, and they all let out a sigh of relief.

Flora knew, however, they couldn't rest for long. They had less than three hours left. That thought spurred her on.

"Alright," she said, bringing River and Clover out of their thoughts. "Um…"

She was going to say more but quickly realized she didn't know what to say. She didn't even know where to start.

"What about this door?" River said, pointing to a door they hadn't noticed in their panic.

"Check if it's open," Flora said, just for something to say.

River was on her way over even before Flora had said anything. She tried the handle, and it opened easily.

Clover cheered. "So we can investigate both rooms now!"

"Yeah," Flora smiled. "How about you two look at what's in that room, and I'll stay in this one."

"Why do you get to pick?" Clover pouted.

"Because I'm the oldest, and I say so," Flora smirked, throwing in a wink for good measure.

To her surprise, both girls giggled.

"Okay," River said. "Come on, Clover. Let's solve this puzzle before Flora!"

"I wouldn't be so confident if I were you," Flora smirked again. She was finding this fun and momentarily forgot about the time slipping away from them. "Professor Layton is my father, after all."

Clover furrowed her eyebrows. "Who?"

She shook her head, as if she suddenly remembered where she was. "Never mind. We need to get going. Shout if you need anything."

"Okay!" the two girls replied.

Clover and River left the room for the one next door, leaving Flora alone. She took a deep breath. She could do this.

In her room, she found a pocket watch, a map on a wall, nautical charts, and a blue book containing a ship’s log. Everything but the pocket watch seemed to be connected with each other; she just needed to figure out how.

“This reminds me of a puzzle,” she giggled.

The pins on the map seemed to line up with the lines on one of the nautical charts. She thought it might be ports where a boat would stop, considering the other clues she had. That wasn’t important though.

She also noticed that by the side of the lines on the nautical chart, there were words next to them. Words like full, half, and slow. She wondered if those would come in handy later.

She opened the blue book to the correct pages. It seemed to be a diary entry of a sailor.   
The parts that were important, however, were the directions the sailor went in his boat. It seemed to match up with the directions on the nautical chart.

“Flora!”

She jumped at Clover’s voice. “Yeah?”

“We’ve found stuff! Come and look!”

“Alright!”

Before Flora left this room, however, she realized that Luke may not have the same information she had. It was easy to get a hold of him and even easier to figure out what information he was lacking. After they made sure they were both on the same page, Flora joined Clover and River in the next room.

“What did you find?” Flora asked.

“This wheel can move!” Clover spun it so quick Flora was afraid she would break it.

“Oh, that’s great,” Flora smiled, failing to match Clover’s enthusiasm. 

“There’s also a compass on the top,” River added with a small smile.

Flora suddenly remembered the ship’s log and the chart. “Oh! I have some directions. Maybe turning the wheel to certain directions on the compass does something?”

Flora read out the directions she had on the nautical charts, and Clover spun the wheel. She was often overenthusiastic, however, and kept missing the points on the compass so River held out her arm to stop the wheel for Clover while keeping an eye on the compass. Flora was grateful for this. She felt as if Clover wouldn’t like it if she bossed her around too much.

After they had gone through all the directions, one of the spokes came off in Clover’s hand.

“I… It just fell off! I didn’t do anything!”

Flora and River giggled at Clover’s panicking. They believed her though and tried to look for anything the spoke could be used for.

They quickly realized it could be put in the top of a machine next to it. None of them knew what it was, but the only important thing was that Flora knew what to do with it.

“Can one of you push and pull that spoke while I read out which words you need to get that hand to point at?”

Clover seemed hesitant this time, possibly still feeling shocked after she thought she’d broken the wheel, so River stepped up this time.

It didn’t take long for this to trigger something else once they were both finished. What looked like a scoreboard on a wall had now lit up with place names that Flora could connect to the nautical charts she had. She didn’t bother explaining that they were ports for a ship. It would waste time, and it didn’t seem like either of the girls would be interested in that anyway.

All three of them noted the time at the very bottom though, which must be the arrival time of said ship. It read ten seconds past three.

“What does that mean?” Clover asked, confused.

Flora was about to respond with an “I don’t know” when she remembered the pocket watch in her pocket. She took it out and tried moving the crown at the top. It did nothing.

“I thought I could use this, but it’s broken,” she sighed.

“Could you move the hands?” River suggested.

Flora tried, and they moved pretty easily. She smiled. “Thanks, River. I can’t believe I didn’t think of that.”

River giggled, clearly happy with herself. Flora was glad that not everyone had turned miserable, like she had.

She shook that thought from her head and turned her attention back to the pocket watch. “Is there anything else I can do with this?”

Clover’s eyes widened. “Oh, yeah! You can put it in that door over there.”

Flora followed Clover’s finger and realized that there was a pretty obvious indentation where the watch should go. She walked quickly over and pressed the pocket watch in. The word above changed from locked to unlocked, which could only be a good thing.

Clover and River cheered as the door opened on its own.

Flora, however, remembered what would most likely be on the other side of this doorway. She had to prepare the kids for it.

“I think we’ll be seeing the ninth door now.”

“Probably,” Clover shrugged. “It’s been long enough.”

Flora nodded. She didn’t understand how Clover could be so calm, but perhaps she was tired of solving endless puzzles. Flora knew she was, although she would never admit to her father or Luke. They would never understand.

“Yeah. Let’s go then.”

Flora waited for confirmation from both girls before she led the group through the doorway. But it seemed Zero wasn’t done with them yet.

* * *

Clover groaned as they found themselves in another room. “Ugh, I thought we were done already!”

Flora couldn’t help but agree, but she knew she had to be the adult here. “I understand, but the quicker we solve this puzzle, the quicker we can get out of here.”

Clover sighed. “You’re right.”

“Is this where the captain would live?” River asked.

Flora nodded. “Probably, considering the door said it was the ‘captain’s quarters’.”

“So where’s the captain?” River asked, puzzled. “Shouldn’t he be here?”

“I suppose you’re right.” Flora hadn’t even thought about that.

Clover suddenly gasped. “What if we find Zero in here?!”

Flora shuddered. She hoped she would never have to meet them. “We might. I really hope not though. Anyway, let’s get out of here quick, and we might just miss him.” She wouldn’t admit that she was scared of meeting Zero.

“Yes, let’s go.” It seemed that River was as nervous as Flora was, to her relief.

They all began searching the captain's quarters, clueless to the developments happening on the passenger liner housing their siblings.

* * *

As soon as the door opened, Luke, Light, and Akane wasted no time in running through it. They found themselves in a room. That had never happened before. Luke frantically looked around. The DEAD could be anywhere! 

"There it is!" Akane was pointing to a door on the other side of the room. It looked identical to the numbered door, and the DEAD was right beside it.

Akane and Luke sprinted towards the DEAD. 

"This way!"

Light easily followed the sound of Luke's voice, clearly unafraid of any possible obstacles in his way.

The three of them slammed their hands on the scanner, and Luke pulled the lever.

The beeping stopped, and they all sighed in relief.

"That was a close one," Luke murmured.

"It definitely was," Light agreed.

While the two boys were getting their breaths back, Akane had already wandered over to the last door and tried the handle. Both of them looked up when they heard a door open.

"Where does this go?" Akane asked.

"I'm not sure but maybe both rooms are needed to escape," Light said.

Luke nodded. "How about you and Akane search there, and I can search this room?"

Light smirked, turning to face Luke again. "Who put you in charge?"

"Oh," Luke looked to the floor, embarrassed. "I just know we don't have a lot of time left, and I trust you to look after Akane."

Light chuckled. "I was kidding, Luke. We are lucky to have someone like you around to hurry us up. It's also kind of you to trust me with Akane."

Luke blushed. "Well, um, you have a little sister, and I don't. So…"

"I completely understand," Light smiled. "I assume your sister is older, then?"

Luke looked at Light, confused, until he realized he was talking about Flora. "Oh, I guess so."

"Guys?"

The two boys turned towards Akane's voice.

Light started, realizing they were only wasting time. "Oh, of course. We need to get started. I apologize."

Akane smiled. "It's okay.”

“Well, I’ll see you later, Luke,” Light said, beginning to walk towards the open door. “Let us know if you find anything.”

“Will do,” Luke touched the brim of his hat with a smile.

Soon, Light and Akane were gone, and Luke was alone. However, he was excited more than anything. They were close to the end, and he knew he could do this. He was Professor Layton’s apprentice, after all!

All he found that could possibly be useful was a pocket watch, a ship's log, and a world map on the wall.

None of it made sense, but he supposed Flora had some extra information for him.

Not long after he had thought that, Flora was talking to him, or rather ‘thinking’ to him. They each explained what they had found in the chart room, and Flora gave him the nautical charts he was lacking.

Luke quickly jotted down the directions and words Flora told him.   
He understood it all, but what was it supposed to mean? There was nothing else to help him in this room.

"Luke!"

He almost jumped out of his skin at Light's voice. He almost forgot that him and Akane were in the next room.

He walked quickly over to them.

"What did you find?" Luke asked them.

"Clover told us the things in two rooms connect together. Do you have something with directions on?"

He walked over and patted a compass sitting above a ship's wheel.

"Ah!" Luke opened the blue book he held. He had used a pen in the previous room to jot down the directions Flora had given him. "Yes, I do. I have them written down."

"Brilliant!" Light grinned, making Luke smile shyly.

Luke relayed the directions to Light while he turned the wheel, and Akane told him when to stop turning.

After all the directions had been met, a spoke fell off into Light’s hand. He held it with a confused expression.

“I promise this came off on its own.”

Akane giggled. “It’s probably meant to. Didn’t you find something with an indent in it?”

“Oh, yes. Of course.”

Light walked over to a machine of some kind and slot the spoke in at the top.

“Are we able to use this now?” he asked.

“Try pushing it,” Luke offered. “I’ll tell you when to stop.” He had opened the blue book to the page where he had written his notes.

Light pushed and pulled the handle on the machine so it stopped on the correct words. Luke assumed they were speeds of the ship, but he hoped they weren’t really affecting this ship. He trusted Light, of course, but not as a captain…

When Light had finished, however, something did happen. A board on the wall had lit up with yet more words. It looked like a scoreboard.

The three of them walked closer to it to see what was written there. Akane read out a list of places that Luke could connect to the map of the world back in the other room.

“I think these are ports where the ship stops,” Luke said.

“Oh, that’s cool,” Akane muttered, clearly not interested. “What’s this though?”

At the very bottom was a time: ten seconds past three.

“Why is it so specific?” Light wondered after Akane read out the time.

Luke stood in thought for a while before he remembered what he had in his pocket.

“Um, I found a pocket watch earlier that might be connected to that time.” As he spoke, he tried to twist the crown at the top but nothing happened. He sighed. “It’s broken.”

“Oh.” Light seemed surprised. “Can you not move the hands?”

Luke tried, and they moved easily. He was glad Light couldn’t see him blushing. However, Akane had. She tried uselessly to hide her laughter.

Luke pouted in Akane’s direction then turned to Light. “Uh, yeah, they do.”

After Luke had got the right time, Akane told him to put it in the door with a pocket watch shaped indentation. He did so, and the door unlocked easily as that.

It opened on its own, but the three of them didn’t move.

“So, the nine door is next,” Luke breathed.

“I would assume so,” Light replied, “but there’s no use in delaying the inevitable.”

“You’re right,” Luke muttered while Akane gave a determined nod.

They walked through the doorway, but it seemed Zero wasn’t done with them yet.

* * *

“There’s another room?!” Luke couldn’t hide his frustration. “I thought we were finished!”

Akane wasn’t sure what to say, but Light lightly placed a hand on Luke’s shoulder. Luke started and looked up at him, suddenly feeling calmer.

“Luke, I understand your frustration, but there’s no use getting worked up about what Zero had planned. This is probably the kind of reaction he has been looking for. Do you remember the fight in the hospital room?”

“Uh, yeah.” Luke couldn’t stop staring at Light. He reminded Luke so much of the professor…

“Zero  _ wanted  _ us all to fight. Perhaps he thought it would be entertaining, or we would want to sacrifice each other. But we can’t allow ourselves to get angry. We have to keep calm. Do you understand?”

Luke nodded. “Yes, I do. Thank you, Light…”

He smiled. “You’re welcome. Now, let’s get out of here, shall we?”

Luke chuckled. “Yeah, I would like that.”

Akane and Light started searching the captain’s quarters, but Luke stood still. A strange emotion had overcome him. He couldn’t put his finger on what it was or what had changed, but something was… different.

“Luke? Aren’t you gonna help?”

“Oh, sorry, Akane.” Luke shook himself out of his thoughts and began to help his two teammates.

Unknown to the three of them, however, two new people were aboard this ship, and they were beginning to wake up.


	17. Chapter 17

After what seemed like a lifetime, Daisuke’s eyes slowly began to open. He felt extremely lethargic, and it took a while for his brain to register where he was and what had happened before. He recalled his memories. 

Professor Layton and he had driven to the wharf where the missing children had been taken, only for him to be apprehended by one of the kidnappers.

He didn’t know what had happened to Hershel. Had he been left behind?

It took him almost all of his energy to move his head to the side. Beside him, fast asleep, was Hershel himself. He was missing his top hat though - it lay in the corner of the room - so it took a little longer for Daisuke to recognize him.

The room they had been supposedly thrown into was small and dirty. There was a bed, toilet, and sink. Nothing else. 

Daisuke chuckled. It looked like a prison cell to him. How ironic.

He knew that it would be no use trying the door. It would most likely be closed, and those goons wouldn’t be as stupid as to leave a key in here for them.  
  
Even though he knew this, he slowly got up onto his knees and tried the door. No amount of pushing or pulling did any good. The door was still stuck firmly shut.   
  
He let his forehead fall against the door with a sigh. Hope of escaping was already fading away.

In the distance, he heard chimes of a bell. There were four in total. He sighed. It must be four in the morning. He must have been out for a long time.

Awoken by Daisuke making a racket with the door, Hershel began to stir. Hearing his friend begin to wake up, Daisuke turned to him.

“Good morning,” Daisuke smiled. 

“Good morning,” Hershel returned croakily. He paused for a moment then felt the top of his head. “Do you know where my hat might have got to?”

Daisuke laughed. “You’re really that worried about a hat? It’s just over here. I can get it for you.”

He crawled over to where Hershel’s hat had fallen then placed it by his side. He would’ve thrown it, but something told him that Hershel wouldn’t have appreciated that.

Hershel smiled. “Thank you very much. This hat is very important to me.”

Once he had donned his beloved hat and sat up, he could get a better view of his surroundings. “I assume you have tried the door."  
  
“Yeah,” Daisuke croaked, his throat unbelievably dry. “Sorry about wakin’ ya. I knew it wouldn’t open anyway.”  
  
“It’s no problem at all. I would prefer to be of some help instead of lying asleep on this _very_ uncomfortable floor.”  
  
Daisuke chuckled. “I guess you’re right. I don’t know what you can help me with here though. There’s not much to work with.”

“I suppose not.”  
  
Despite him knowing there was slim chance of escaping this room, Hershel got onto his knees. Like Daisuke, the anaesthetic he had most likely been injected with had left him feeling lethargic. He doubted he would be able to stand up.

If he had been more perceptive, he would have put two and two together and realized that he had also been gassed with anaesthetic along with Brenda and Clark back at their apartment. However, he was rather distracted.

He couldn’t stop worrying about the children who had been brought onto this ship, assuming it was the same one. He thought back to the bags that those men were carrying on the wharf. One of those bags must have contained Luke. 

A sudden flash of anger took over him. Thinking that Luke had been shoved into a bag and thrown onto a ship without a care made him furious. Who did those people think they were to treat him like that?! Realizing that Flora must have gone through the same treatment just made him angrier.

“Professor? Are you okay?” Daisuke had been watching Hershel’s expression turn darker.

“No! I’m not okay!” Hershel shouted before he could compose himself. He couldn’t pretend he was fine anymore. “My daughter and my apprentice are missing, and I find out that they have been thrown onto this boat! I can’t even imagine what trials they are going through, and I can’t even do anything to help them!”

His voice gave out, and he began to cry. He covered his face with his hands, even though it was clear he was upset. His shoulders were shaking.

Daisuke looked at Hershel for a minute with a degree of pity then crawled over to him and put an arm around his small frame. It was funny how he seemed even smaller now.

“Professor, I understand that this is difficult to deal with. I admit, I have no idea what the kids are doing here, but we will save them. You have my word.”

“I’m so sorry.” Hershel could barely speak, his voice racked with sobs. “Officer, I’m not usually this… erratic. I shouldn’t have yelled at you. It is not becoming of a… a gentleman.”

Daisuke laughed. “Trust me, that was nothing. I’ve had way worse.”

He was happy to hear a shaky laugh from behind those hands.

After a while, Hershel managed to calm down. He wiped his tears away with his sleeve, and both of them got back to work.  
  
It didn’t take long for Hershel to find a vent underneath the bed. He beckoned Daisuke over to take a look, and he immediately took charge.  
  
“Alright, step back, Professor. I know exactly what to do with this son-of-a-bitch.”  
  
Hershel cringed at the swear word but didn’t say anything. He stepped, or rather shuffled, back as he had been told.

To Hershel’s surprise, Daisuke tried to rip the vent off with his bare hands. It looked like it was screwed into the wall fairly well, but he seemed to think he could get it off. He was grunting and yelling with all his might, so much so that Hershel tentatively put a hand on Daisuke’s shoulder to make him stop.

“Daisuke… you don’t need to exert yourself so much. I’m sure we can find a tool of some sort to remove the vent.”

Daisuke was panting heavily, so he could only nod. “Sorry, Professor,” he wheezed.

“It’s quite alright. Frankly, I admire your dedication to the cause.”

He grinned. “Same to you, Professor.”

Daisuke rested for a while on the edge of the bed while Hershel hunted for a screwdriver or anything that could unscrew the vent.

While the two men were puzzling through, Luke felt that same feeling well up inside once again.  
  
He still didn’t understand what it meant, but he knew he wanted more than ever to get out of this ship and back on dry land. He had recently found an appreciation for the sea since he took a ferry to America, but now he was aboard one again, he couldn’t wait to get off it.  
  
It was as if time flew by, and his team and escaped the captain’s quarters in no time. Light and Akane hadn’t seemed to notice this change, so Luke tried to pretend it was just his intellect that had caused them to solve the room so fast.  
  
In response, Akane giggled and Light smirked at him.  
  
“What?!” Even though he had lied, Luke was still quite offended. “I’m smart too!”  
  
“We know that,” Light chuckled. “However, it’s amusing to tease you sometimes.”  
  
“Hmph.”  
  
Since Luke had nothing to say, the three quickly left the room. There was yet another hallway.  
  
Luke sighed dramatically. “How many more rooms are there?!”  
  
“I don’t think there will be many more, considering how we have found all the doors but one,” Light said matter-of-factly. It seemed that he was more patient than Luke could ever hope to be.

Akane didn’t complain like Luke had, but it was clear she was flagging. She didn’t try to hide that her feet were dragging across the floor.

Light reached to take Akane’s hand. “I’m sure it isn’t much longer. If there is a seat in the next room, you can sit down for a bit, alright?”

She nodded weakly.  
  
The corridor came out to another staircase. It looked like this was the top deck of the ship. This seemed promising to Luke, but he couldn’t know for sure.  
  
“Hey, look, the 5 and 4 doors are down there.” Luke pointed over the railing.

“So, we’re back to square one…” Light muttered. “What could that mean?”  
  
“I don’t know, but I really hope we can get out of here soon.”

The three of them quickly noticed that the rest of the kids were down there too.

Luke, Light, and Akane rushed down the stairs to join them.  
  
They all exchanged greetings. Despite knowing they would always end up back together, it was still a welcome surprise whenever they did.  
  
Aoi flashed a smile at his little sister before realizing how exhausted she looked. Before he could say anything, Light gave Aoi a nod and quickly took Akane to sit down on a chair. A few of the younger kids took a seat too in the few chairs dotted around.  
  
Luke insisted he was fine, but after a few teasing remarks from both Nona and Aoi, he sat down too. The only worry was that he wouldn’t want to stand back up again to continue.  
  
Once everyone was settled, Nona couldn’t contain her secret anymore.  
  
“We found it!”  
  
“Found what?” Luke asked when no one else had spoken.  
  
“Come on, Luke. I thought you were smart,” she smirked while Luke crossed his arms in frustration. “We found the last door!”

The six kids who hadn’t been through door 6 gasped one after the other. Even though everyone had seen this coming a mile away, it didn’t mean it wasn’t still surprising.  
  
Despite Luke’s aching legs, he jumped up right away. “Let’s go then!”  
  
A few of the children laughed, including Aoi who had been kneeling beside Akane.

Nona wasn’t quite expecting that reaction, but she quickly composed herself. “Well, as long as everyone else is ready?”

Once Aoi had checked in with Akane, he nodded to Nona. When no one raised any objections, she smiled.

“Alright then. To the last door.”

* * *

Flora noticed that Luke hadn’t communicated much with her since she sent him the nautical charts and other things he needed back in the captain’s quarters. Usually, they would check in with each other to make sure that they were both at the same points. But she had unlocked the door to the captain quarter’s exit, and she hadn’t heard anything from him at all.  
  
“Are you okay, Flora?”  
  
Flora turned to Clover’s voice. It was still strange to hear Clover talk to her in this way. “Um, yeah. I just haven’t heard from my brother in a while. I’m getting worried.”  
  
“Maybe he’s just busy or doesn’t need your help anymore,” she shrugged.  
  
While that may be true, it hurt Flora to think that. It just proved that Luke didn’t need her. Why did she ever think he would?  
  
“Yeah, maybe…” Without a word, she opened the door and walked through.  
  
Clover and River hurried to keep up with her, exchanging worried glances. If they were getting nearer to the end, they would need Flora’s help more than ever. But if she kept acting like this…  
  
The two girls were pulled out of their thoughts as they saw Flora open a door at the end of the hallway and go through it. She let the door close behind her, forgetting that she was being followed.

“Hmph. Guess we’re not important then,” Clover grumbled as she and River pushed open the door together.  
  
They had come out to the central staircase and from the two numbered doors below them, it looked like they were back to the beginning again.

Flora, however, didn’t even notice this. All she saw was that the rest of the group were at the bottom of the stairs, and she rushed down to join them.

Most of them had already sat down on the chairs dotted around the room. Considering most of the children were fairly younger than her, Flora wasn’t surprised that they were tired. Seeing them sitting down actually made Flora realize how tired she was too.  
  
All the chairs were taken, so she decided to sit down on the stairs. It wasn’t as comfortable, but it would do. Iris decided to join her.

“Do you want to know a secret?” she said once she had sat down by Flora.  
  
She stared at Iris for a moment. What could she have found out? “Uh, okay.”

“We found the last door.”

Flora’s eyes widened. “Really? Door 9?”

“The very same,” Iris grinned. “We can finally get out of here!”

“Yeah…” Suddenly she wasn’t as excited as her friend. “But can we all go through?”

Iris frowned. “I forgot about that. Remember what Zero said? Only three, four, or five people can go through a numbered door.”

Flora berated herself for forgetting such an important detail. “Oh, of course. I forgot all about that. I guess we won’t be able to then…”  
  
“I’m sure you’ll be able to go through, being a number one and all.” Iris smiled, but Flora could tell it wasn’t genuine.

“You don’t know that,” Flora said. “There must be loads of combinations where I can’t escape.”  
  
“I guess so.” Iris didn’t seem convinced, and Flora didn’t want to push it. None of them had any idea how this could go.

The two girls sat in silence before two pairs of footsteps broke the silence.

Flora looked back and started. She had completely forgotten about Clover and River, and it seemed they had figured that out too.

Clover stalked past Flora without so much as a smile. River at least looked her in the eye, but Flora could tell she was upset too. Before Flora could even stutter out an apology, the two of them had joined the rest of the group. It seemed they were all filled in on the plan and ready to go.

Iris and Flora joined them in the middle of the room.

“So, is everyone ready for the last door?” Ennea asked everyone.

With no objections, they all made their way to what they knew was the last door. They would finally be able to escape! Or so they thought.

* * *

The teams on the passenger liner and in building Q all walked the same path: through door 6, through the room that six of the children had already solved, and through the exit door. There was yet another hallway at the end of which was a wooden door. It was different from doors they had seen before, which gave them all hope. Maybe this was finally the end! 

The door led them into a room that looked like a chapel. 

This room was overshadowed, however, by the huge door on the opposite wall.

The eighteen children all stood in shock. 

“Woah…”

They were all so captivated by the 9 door that only two of the children from each team noticed the other 9 door off to the side. 

The first one to notice was Luke.

He wasn’t sure if he had just gotten used to the way this game worked, but he knew he had to properly survey the room before they made any rash decisions. That was what the professor would do anyway.

“Hang on,” Luke frowned, drawing everyone’s attention. “There’s two of them.”

“What do you mean, Luke?” Light asked as the others whirled around to stare at the second 9 door.

“There’s the large double door in front of us, but there is also another one to the right of that… uh…”

“I think you’d call that a coffin,” Aoi smirked. “There’s probably a dead body in there as well.”

Luke covered his ears and screwed his eyelids shut. “Don’t say that, Aoi!” he whined.

Aoi chuckled while Nona giggled beside him.

“Don’t be mean to Luke!” Akane piped up, surprising the four standing around her. “He’s been really nice to me!”

“Oh, has he now?” Aoi raised an eyebrow at Luke. “Well, I guess I could be  _ a bit _ nicer to him.”

“It's a bit late for that, isn’t it?” Luke said. “We’re almost done with this stupid game.” He surprised himself at his annoyance. Maybe he was just tired. He could sleep for an entire week after this.

“I guess you’re right,” Aoi shrugged, “which reminds me, we should figure out who’s going through each door.”

This time, it didn't matter so much who went with who. They all had a feeling they wouldn't be split up for long anyway. And they were right.

Shortly after Luke noticed the second numbered door, Flora wasn't far behind.

She had also taken to scanning the room. She had never seen a chapel before or even a room like this, and it looked very pretty to her. So when the rest of her group was staring at the double doors opposite them and talking between themselves, Flora let her eyes wander. That was when she noticed it.

"Uh, guys?" She began uncertainly. "I think you need to look at this."

She was pointing to a smaller wooden door which also bore the number 9.

"What? Why is there another one?" Ennea asked, not believing her eyes. "What was the point of all this if we can all escape?"

Flora shrugged. "I don't know, but it's good news, I suppose." She knew she should've sounded happier, but something told her this wasn't the end.

"Well, that's great." Iris seemed to have the same lack of enthusiasm as Flora.

With uncertain feelings, they divided into two groups. Like the team on the real ship, they didn't think it mattered much, if at all.

Even so, they waved goodbye and pulled the levers once they had scanned all their bracelets. What awaited them was something none of them expected.


	18. Chapter 18

There wasn’t a hallway this time, at least not a long one. The whole space was covered in metal, and there was a big door to the left. Luke gulped. He could read the sign above the door where he stood, but he didn’t want to read it out loud.

Someone else, thankfully, said it for him.

“Incinerator.” Nona’s voice was uncharacteristically quiet. “The 9 door is on the other side of it. I can see it through the window.” She said this more for Light’s sake, since it was clear what the piece of glass set in the door was supposed to be.

No one else seemed to enjoy the idea of walking into an incinerator. Even Aoi and Light looked nervous. However, it looked like they were all supposed to go in there for their last puzzle, and to escape. 

“We have about two hours left, right?” Aoi asked the group in general.

There were nods and murmurs of ‘yes’. Akane grabbed Aoi’s hand, and he squeezed it in return.

“Right then,” he said. “I guess we should get going.”

Luke glanced at Aoi for a moment. Luke had always seen him as a leader and someone who would step up no matter how tough it got. But now, that had all disappeared. He looked broken. Now they were finally at the end, Aoi didn’t have to put up an act anymore.

Aoi caught Luke’s eye, and they shared a nod. They both knew it would be difficult, but they could get through it. They had to.

Nona was closest to the lever, so she pulled it. The metal door slid open, and the nine of them rushed through. 

There it was… the real number 9 door.

After what they had seen in the chapel, they all instinctively looked around for another 9 door. There wasn’t one.

“Thought it wouldn’t be that easy, Nona sighed.

The huge metal door in front of them was intimidating to say the least.

Thankfully, there was no DEAD this time, but they all felt the same anxiety that they could die at any minute. If the incinerator was turned on…

All nine of them jumped out of their skin as an alarm started blaring, and the metal door they had opened slammed shut on them.

“Warning. Warning. Emergency incinerator command has been acknowledged. Automatic incineration will take place in eighteen minutes.”

“What?!” Aoi and Luke yelled at the same time.

The youngest children burst into tears, including Akane. The others were shouting for help, even though they knew no one would come. Akane held onto Aoi’s hand so tight that he thought she was going to break it.

Only Light was quiet. Luke watched him. It reminded him a lot of the professor. 

In a situation like this, where Luke would freak out, Hershel would stay calm and would already be thinking of a way to escape. Luke was thankful they had Light. Maybe he could get them all to safety.

“So only five of us can escape, if I remember correctly.” Light’s calm voice brought the rest of the children out of their panic, just like back in the hospital room. Luke admired him for that.

“Yeah, I think so,” Luke said.

“I’m not sure about you,” Light looked to Aoi, “but I would rather the younger children escape, even if it means that the two of us are left here.”

Aoi glanced down at his little sister. He’d made up his mind even before Light had spoken. “Yes, I agree.” If Akane got out safely, that was all that mattered to him.

“I’m not leaving you!” Akane suddenly shouted, tears spilling down her face. “If you stay, I'm staying too!”

Luke was painfully reminded of Flora’s reaction whenever he and the professor left her behind. He truly hoped she was okay.

“We shall have to see what our possible combinations are,” Light muttered, deciding not to give an opinion on Akane wanting to stay. He figured that was for the best. They didn’t have time to fight again.

Light was the only one calm and smart enough to figure out the possible combinations with their current criteria in mind. So the rest of the group let him get on with it, trying not to think of the timer ticking down somewhere in the distance.

Finally, he came up with answers.

"There are two possible combinations that could work," Light began.

The rest of them listened in anticipation.

They were as follows: 1 + 2 + 3 + 5 + 7 = 18 = 9 

2 + 3 + 6 + 7 + 9 = 27 = 9

When Light had explained this, Luke immediately had something to say.

"Well, I'm not leaving! I'm old enough to stay!"

Aoi sighed dramatically and rolled his eyes. "Look, kid. It's not all about you. We need to think about the other-"

"I'm not a kid!"

Luke was loud enough to make Aoi stop in his tracks. He could only blink in shock.

"What Aoi is  _ trying  _ to say," Light tried speaking more softly, "is that if you stay, Akane also stays, and she is considerably younger than you."

Luke could barely hear him over the ringing in his ears. He didn't know where this anger had come from, but it was overpowering.

"We can look after her." Luke's voice was barely above a whisper, his voice hoarse.

"Sorry, what was that?" Light asked, as gently as he could.

"I  _ said _ we could look after her."

"While we burn to death?" Aoi snapped.

"I told you my friend is gonna save us!"

"Ha! Your dad isn't gonna save anyone at this rate."

* * *

Daisuke found a penny in his pocket (his first thought had been his pocket knife, but it was confiscated) and was unscrewing the vent when they heard the warning message from below.

“Did that voice say incineration?” Hershel asked, panic rising within him.

“Yeah, I think so,” Daisuke said, also beginning to worry. “I really hope the kids aren’t in there.”

As soon as he said that, they heard screaming and yelling. They were clearly children’s voices.

Daisuke cursed loudly, and Hershel flinched. He was straining his hearing for any sign of Luke and Flora. Then he heard a voice rise up above the rest.

Hershel immediately recognised the voice as Luke’s. He seemed to be yelling something. He must be in danger.

Without thinking, Hershel roughly shouldered Daisuke out of the way and began to pull on the vent with his hands, just as Daisuke had done before.

His eyes were filled with tears, and the only thing on his mind was that he  _ had to  _ get to Luke or else he was going to burn alive.

Daisuke looked on in surprise at the other's erratic behaviour then finally found it in himself to calm Hershel down, if he'd only listen.

"Professor…  _ Professor _ ."

Hershel finally stopped struggling and looked up at Daisuke, out of breath.

"There's no use trying to rush it. We just need to stay calm, okay? We'll save them, I promise."

He nodded, realizing bitterly that he was usually the one to give out this advice. "Of course. I apologize."

"No need," he patted Hershel lightly on the shoulder. "Just let me finish this off."

Soon enough, Daisuke had taken off the vent and told Hershel he could crawl through. It would be easier for him anyway.

Hershel thanked Daisuke and began to make his way through. 

He had to slither on his stomach for a while before it opened wide enough for him to crawl.

Eventually, he came to some sort of metal door, which he pushed open, careful not to fall down in the process.

What he saw below him were nine children; most of them by now in tears. Of course, he knew Luke would be there, but it still took him by surprise. He was disappointed not to find Flora, but that meant she wasn’t in danger… hopefully.

The nine children looked up as they saw something move above them. Luke let out an audible gasp as he saw the professor crouching above them.

"Professor!"

Luke looked like he was about to burst into tears. The rest of the children had been skeptical at first of this stranger, but they seemed to relax when it was clear Luke knew them.

"It's alright! We will get you all out, I promise!" Hershel shouted down.

Only Aoi rolled his eyes. "Is that really the person you said was gonna save all of us?" he asked Luke.

"Yes. Do you have a problem?" Luke glared at Aoi.

"I just don't see how he's gonna be much help. He doesn't even have a rope."

_ A rope. _ Hershel had been thinking of the best way to get all the children to safety. It was true that there was nothing of the sort back in the room Hershel had come from, but he might just be able to make a substitute.

"Young man, thank you for the brilliant idea! You all stay there. I'll be just a moment."

Hershel quickly shut the door and began to crawl back up the vent.

"You may have just saved us, Aoi," Light grinned.

"Yeah, well done, Aoi," Akane smiled. She had stopped crying.

Aoi couldn't hide his blush. "Shut up."

"Well, I'm  _ definitely _ not leaving now," Luke said smugly. "I trust the professor to get us all to safety."

"Are you alright with that, Akane?" Light asked.

"Yep!"

"Well, then, I think we have our answer," Light smiled. He began counting on his fingers. "The people to use the 9 door will be Kenji, Robin, Jasmine, Akira, and Nona."

Nona's eyes widened. "What? Why can't I stay?!"

"Both of the combinations we had involved the number nine."

"But… Jasmine and I are the oldest after you and Aoi!"

Jasmine decided to join in. "Yeah! Why can't we stay?"

"So?" Aoi raised an eyebrow. "Luke is the same age as you.”

Luke bit back a laugh. It seemed he was only old enough to Aoi when it was convenient for him.

Nona let out a noise of frustration, and Jasmine looked to the floor. It seemed they'd both run out of arguments. 

"Well," Nona sighed, " _ I guess  _ it's fine as long as the younger kids can escape."

"Exactly," Light said. "Now, quickly!"

The RED scanner had a cover over it, but it easily came off for the children to scan their bracelets.

The 9 door opened, and they were gone. They didn't even look back.

Luke hoped that meant they trusted the professor too and that they would all meet again.

* * *

The nine children found themselves in front of a large metal door with a plaque above it reading 'incinerator'.

"Well,  _ that  _ doesn't sound good," Ennea said.

"Is there nowhere else to go?" Neptune asked.

"I don't think so. It looks like it's all dead ends from here."

Yuki decided to walk around to check and confirmed that Ennea was correct once she had returned.

"I guess we have to go in then," Yuki sighed.

They all pulled open the door together and made their way inside.

There was yet again a huge door with the number 9 on it, but this time there was only one door.

They all looked around in a panic.

"What about the other door?!" Flora said, her voice getting squeakier by the minute.

"I can't see another one!" Clover cried.

Before any of them had a chance to calm down. The door they had opened slid shut, and an alarm blared, bouncing around the metal walls.

“Warning. Warning. Emergency incinerator command has been acknowledged. Automatic incineration will take place in eighteen minutes.”

Clover immediately burst into tears, closely followed by River, Noel, and Hikaru. Neptune quickly ran to his brother's side to comfort him.

Flora wished she could cry too, but she knew she couldn't. She had to be strong for them.

"What do we do?!" Iris had seemingly begun to panic. Her breathing had quickened.

"Okay, don't panic," Flora tried. "We can figure this out, okay?"

She sounded useless, but Ennea and Yuki gave her encouraging nods.

"The youngest kids are top priority," Yuki began, "so we need to make sure they all escape."

"Right," Flora nodded, "and Hikaru and Neptune can't be separated either way."

"Of course."

That helped narrow down their options somewhat, but there were still many to choose from.

"I'm staying too." Flora had never been one to take a stand like this, but she knew she had to. "I'm the oldest, so I have to be with whoever stays behind."

"If you're staying then I'm staying too!"

Flora looked at Iris in surprise. She'd almost forgotten Iris was even there, let alone that she was the second oldest in the group. But with the criteria they'd already set…

"I'm sorry, Iris. There isn't a combination where we get to stay together."

Iris didn't seem happy with that, but she didn't say anything either.

With their options narrowed down, they had come to two combinations: 

2 + 4 + 6 + 7 + 8 = 27 = 9

2+ 3 + 6 + 7 + 9 = 27 = 9

Clover stomped her foot down as soon as she realized her number had been mentioned.

"I'm not leaving! My brother is gonna stay behind, so I'm staying with him!"

Yuki, Ennea, and Flora stared at her. They didn't think she would cause a fuss over this. Didn't she want to escape?

"Why do you think your brother will stay?" Ennea tried.

"Because he's probably the oldest there. Even if he isn't, he can look after himself and will want to look after the others!"

It seemed Clover was determined to stay, so they didn't push it. They didn't want to waste time they didn't have.

"You're completely sure about this?" Flora asked, suddenly realizing just how young Clover was.

"Yeah!"

Flora glanced at Yuki and Ennea and shrugged. There was no arguing with that.

"Alright then. So the people who will go through the nine door are Hikaru, Noel, Neptune, Iris, and Ennea."

"But-" Ennea began. Iris also looked like she was about to protest again.

"We don't have time for this!" Flora shouted.

Ennea stepped back in shock. She never could've imagined Flora to act like this.

Flora rolled her eyes when she realized no one had moved yet. "We'll be fine, just go!"

"Alright, alright," Ennea sighed then smiled at Flora. "Thank you."

With no more time to waste, Hikaru, Neptune, Noel, and Ennea ran over to door 9 and scanned their bracelets, but Iris stayed behind.

"What are you doing?" Flora stared.

"I… What if you don't make it out?"

Bizarrely, it hadn't occurred to Flora that she might actually die here. Her eyes began to fill with tears.

"I…" She tried to speak, but words wouldn't come out.

Iris shook her head, tears overflowing, and she caught Flora in a hug.

It was short, but it made it all the more real. What if she never saw Iris again?

"Please be careful," Flora whispered.

"Come on!" Ennea yelled. There were other shouts too.

"You too," Iris smiled. "I'll see you soon, okay?"

Flora nodded, and Iris ran to join her group. She slammed her hand on the scanner, and Ennea pulled the lever.

The five of them waved a farewell to the others then they disappeared through the opening as the door slid across.

Soon, it was shut again, and they were alone.

For the millionth time that day, Flora wished that the professor was there to save the day. But she knew he would never come.

* * *

It felt like forever that Luke, Light, Aoi, and Akane were waiting for Hershel to come back to save them.

Neither of them talked. There wasn’t much to say. Usually, Luke assumed that in times like this, there would be non-stop talking about anything and everything, but there was only silence. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could keep quiet.

Fortunately, Hershel appeared again a while later, this time with what looked like blankets tied together. He had also brought a friend.

“Who’s that?” Aoi asked, pointing to the man next to Hershel. Luke responded with a shrug.

“I’m a detective. I’m here to help you kids get out of here.”

“He’s right,” Hershel added. “We’re going to pull you up with this makeshift rope then we will see where these vents lead.”

The four of them had no choice but to play along.

Hershel crouched and dropped the rope down as far as he could, but Daisuke stayed still.

“Hey, there were more of you before. The professor told me there were nine of ya.”

“Oh, of course,” Hershel muttered. He was ashamed that he hadn’t even noticed. He was only focussed on Luke.

Aoi decided to answer for the group. “We let them go on ahead. They opened the 9 door and they left.”

“So why didn’t all of you escape?” Hershel asked.

“We can’t go with them!”

“Why not?”

Aoi began explaining how their bracelets and the numbered doors work when he got cut off by another warning.

“Incineration will begin in five minutes.”

The four kids panicked, including Aoi.

“Look, that can wait,” he said. “Just get us out of here!”

“Of course!”

With the combined strength of both men, they pulled up all four children to safety. Light and Aoi climbed up the rope themselves, saving some time.

Aoi was the last one to come up, and he was almost at the top when they heard knocking.

The four children, Hershel, and Daisuke all turned to the noise. Who else was here?

The knocking had come from one of the large doors. One of them had a window set into it. 

On the other side of it an angry face stared in.

“Goddamnit! What’s going on here?”

The four children stared in horror. There was only one person who would be this angry about them escaping.

“Why is the room empty?! Where the hell are those fucking kids?!”

The door opened, and a man stepped in, looking like he might explode with fury.

Daisuke recognized him almost immediately. He’d seen him many times in photos during his investigation of this place. He remembered his name too: Gentarou Hongou. He was the CEO of Cradle Pharmaceuticals, the hospital where all these kids had visited.

Gentarou saw Aoi being pulled up by Hershel and let out a roar. It made Luke jump out of his skin. 

Gentarou raced towards the rope and lunged for it.

“Hurry!” Daisuke shouted to Aoi.

“I know!”

He scaled the rope as fast as he could, Hershel and Daisuke pulling as hard as they could to help.

As soon as he was close enough, Daisuke pulled him up. Thankfully, Gentarou was too slow.

Gentarou continued to scream and yell obscenities, but it was all blurring into one. The kids couldn’t believe they’d been saved, and the two men were finding this all hard to process. This man was intending on killing these children?!

“Incineration will begin in one minute.”

“Hey, old man. What are you doing?”

Daisuke didn’t realize that he was still staring at the madman down in the incinerator.

“Sorry,” Daisuke muttered, and slammed the metal door closed.

They all crawled away from the incinerator. There was no point in going back to the cell, so they took a different route. There was another duct to the left that went down.

The six of them made eye contact and nodded. Daisuke was the first to slide down, then came the kids. Hershel brought up the rear.

They came out into a narrow hallway with two doors either side.

One door was leading to the incinerator, but the other one looked new, so they opened it. They wanted to get as far away from the fire as possible.

The other door opened onto a large spiral staircase. They didn’t know where it would lead, but anywhere was better than where they’d come from.

“Run!” Daisuke yelled.

The kids didn’t need to be told twice.

Aoi and Hershel took the lead, Light and Daisuke were second, and Luke and Akane were at the back. They were still both tired from everything that had happened today, despite the rushing adrenaline.

They all ran up the stairs like their life depended on it, which it most likely did.

Luke, however, couldn’t stop thinking about the person that had come into the incinerator. Was that man… Zero?! Had they finally figured it all out? But then who was with Flora and the rest? Surely, he couldn’t be in two places at once.

He turned around to ask Akane, but she had disappeared.

Luke couldn’t do more than gasp with how out of breath he was. He thought about shouting to the rest of them but considering that he was already falling behind, he decided to turn around and find Akane himself. Luke would rather the rest of them make it out alive than all of them try to find Akane at once. Zero might come back for them and shove them back into the incinerator again.

So with that, he ran back down the stairs. He knew that the professor might scold him for it later, but he would gladly take that if it meant Akane made it out safely.

Luke had hoped that Akane was just slower than the rest, but he made it all the way to the bottom of the staircase, and she was nowhere to be found. He came out to the hallway by the incinerator when he heard her voice.

“Help me! Someone help!”

Luke threw open the door to the incinerator. He couldn’t help but stare in horror.

Zero had taken Akane by the arm and was dragging her into the incinerator. She was crying.

“Come on, move!”

“No, I don’t want to! Let go of me! Please let go!” She planted her feet on the floor, but Zero was stronger, so he continued to pull her.

Luke knew he couldn’t stand by and watch. It wasn’t what a gentleman would do.

He ran into the incinerator before he could think through the consequences.

“Hey!” His voice echoed around the metal walls, and Zero looked up. “Leave her alone!”

“Oh, lovely of you to join us,” Zero grinned. “You can keep her company while she burns alive in-” he mockingly checked his watch, “-about eighteen minutes.”

“You monster!”

Zero laughed. “I’m no monster.” His voice had turned sickly sweet, and Luke wanted to hit him right there and then. “I’m just doing what has to be done.”

Before Luke could question what he meant by that, the incinerator door slammed shut with the three of them inside.

Not a second after, they heard banging and yelling on the other side. The voices were overlapping and muffled, but Luke easily recognized them.

Luke and Akane yelled back, but their voices were too quiet. Luke felt like he could burst into tears at any minute, and Akane already had.

Now that the two kids were trapped, Zero decided there was no need for him to be here, so he turned his back on them and walked to the closed number 9 door. He took out a bracelet, waved it over the RED then threw them carelessly onto the floor.

He walked past Luke and Akane, not even bothering to look at them, then out through one of the other metal doors.

Soon enough, all the doors were closed again.

Luke and Akane could still hear pounding on metal on the outside of the incinerator, but only Akane rushed over to the noise. Light, Aoi and the two grownups had obviously come to find them, just like Luke had feared.

Luke, however, didn’t join Akane. He sat down on the floor with his head in his hands. How had everything gone south so quickly? They had almost been home free then it was as if all their progress had been wasted.

He took a deep breath as he realized he was spiralling. Suddenly, he thought of Flora. He hadn’t talked to her for a while now. Maybe she would know a way out.

He screwed his eyes shut and concentrated as hard as he could. Tears began to leak out of the corners of his eyes. What if all of this was for nothing?

Thankfully, Flora quickly responded.

_ Luke?! Are you okay? _

He laughed. He hadn’t been okay for over seven hours now. He just wanted to go home.  _ Yeah, for now, at least. _

He then went on to explain everything that had happened, even though he knew Flora had been through mostly the same things as he had. When he got to the part about the professor saving the group, Flora fell quiet. Luke waited for a moment until she spoke again. He didn’t have to wonder this time why she hesitated.

_ The professor came to save you?! That’s… um, that’s great! _

Luke sighed but didn’t say anything. He knew how she must feel. The professor saved him, not her, although it was all for nothing now. It was almost reminiscent of when he always let Luke join him on investigations and left Flora behind. And now she was going to die because of it…

He cried harder. Flora was trying to talk to him, but Luke couldn’t hear her anymore over his own thoughts. 

In the end, she gave up, and he was all alone.

Eventually, Akane walked back over and sat next to him.

“Luke… are you okay?”

“No, I’m not okay!”

She flinched at Luke’s outburst, but he didn’t notice. His hands still covered his face.

“Why did you even come back here anyway?” Luke tried to keep his voice level, but his voice shook with anger. If she hadn’t left the group, neither of them would be in this mess!

“Huh?”

“You heard me! If you hadn’t come back here then we could’ve all escaped!”

Akane hesitated. She never thought of that. “I… I never asked you to come find me.”

“And what was I supposed to do?! Leave you here and save myself?”

“I guess not…”

“Well, you’re lucky. Your brother’s safe. My sister isn’t…”

Akane didn’t have an answer for that. She supposed she should feel relieved, but she didn’t. This was all such a mess that it was hard to make head or tail of it.

Then the voice spoke again.

“Emergency incinerator command has been acknowledged. Automatic incineration will take place in eighteen minutes.”

“Well, that’s just  _ great _ ,” Luke scoffed.

Akane winced and looked down at her hands in her lap. She began to cry again. This was all her fault.


	19. Chapter 19

None of the girls had spoken since the others left through the nine door. Flora wished she was able to come up with some inspiring speech that would do something to lift the mood, but nothing came. Of course, it didn’t. The professor or Luke said things like that, not her.

The others - Yuki, Clover, and River - were all crying by now. Since none of their siblings could transmit like they could, they didn’t know where they were. What if they were all stuck in this incinerator too?

Flora, of course, could communicate with Luke, but he hadn’t said anything for a long while. She was beside herself with worry. A few stray tears leaked out of the corners of her eyes, but she brushed them away quickly, so the others didn’t see.

After the fifteen-minute warning, Luke finally spoke to her.

_ Flora? Are you there? _

She jumped from the noise that only she could hear, and a grin spread across her face. She thought she would never get to hear his voice again.

_ Luke?! Are you okay? _

_ Yeah. For now, at least. _

Flora winced. She didn’t like the way he’d phrased that.

“Flora?” Yuki lifted her head. She had noticed Flora’s change in demeanour.

Flora tried to contain her smile. She shouldn’t be happy at a time like this, but she couldn’t help it. “Luke is talking to me again. I… don’t know if he’s safe though.”

Flora asked Luke to explain what he meant and listened intently. Apparently, five of his team had escaped, just like theirs had done. Luke listed the names, none of which Flora was familiar with, of course. But they both figured out that, luckily, they had come up with the same combination of bracelet numbers, even without communicating.

It turned out, however, that Yuki’s sister and River’s brother had escaped. When Flora told them both, a smile lit up their faces. Flora got a glimpse of Clover’s face. She wasn’t happy about the news, even though she knew that Light would stay behind. Flora tried not to think about that though, and told Luke to continue.

The news that the professor and some detective had come to save them all was surprising. Flora knew she should be happy, but instead she felt jealous. Why couldn’t he come and save her instead?

_ The professor came to save you?! That’s… um, that’s great! _

She knew it was a pathetic response, but Luke seemed not to notice.

He went on to explain how they were saved, then how Akane went back to the incinerator to get her doll. Luke and Akane were now stuck inside with the rest of them on the outside with no way to get to them.

Luke fell quiet. Flora tried to tell him that everything would be okay, and they would figure something out. She knew they were empty promises, but Luke didn’t seem to be listening. She tried not to think of him crying there sitting in the exact spot she was.

In the end, she gave up with a sigh and turned to the others.

She quickly updated them on the current situation. She could see Clover relax, knowing that Light was no longer in danger, but worry crossed her face once Flora told her that two other people were still in the incinerator.

“So, what do we do?” River asked.

“I don’t know…” Flora sighed.

Yuki frowned. “We’ve had puzzles to solve this entire time. Shouldn’t there be one now? Or are we just supposed to die here?”

Flora winced. She wished Yuki could’ve phrased that a different way, but what was the point? They essentially had less than fifteen minutes to live, and it would be silly to try and ignore it.

Before they could fall into another silence, there was the sound of metal on metal.

The four girls turned their heads to the sound and saw that a part of the floor was moving. They all immediately jumped up and rushed over.

Some sort of machine had risen from the floor.

“What is that?” Clover asked.

“Maybe it’s the puzzle you talked about,” Flora said to Yuki, who nodded.

They waited for the machine to turn on, but nothing happened.

River frowned and moved closer. She tentatively reached her finger out to push a button. No one made a move to stop her. They had nothing to lose, after all.

She pushed a button, and the screen turned on. It didn’t help alleviate any confusion, however.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Clover huffed.

“It looks like a sudoku,” Flora muttered, holding her chin with one hand, “but there're letters too.”

“It most likely is that,” Yuki said, “and hopefully, solving this puzzle will stop the incinerator.”

“So, what are we waiting for?!” Clover seemed suddenly excited, which spurred on the others.

Just as they were about to start, a voice interrupted.

* * *

Luke had finally calmed down enough to stop crying but couldn’t look Akane in the eye. He was still angry that they were both trapped in this incinerator together, but he knew it wasn’t her fault. Maybe Zero would’ve caught up with them, even if Akane hadn’t run back down there. Besides, there was no time to fall out over something. Their lives were in danger.

Suddenly, there was the sound of metal on metal, and something began rising from the floor. Both Luke and Akane rushed over.

“What… what is it?” Akane asked, her voice small.

“I don’t know,” Luke said. “I can’t see anything on the screen.”

“How about… um, pressing a button? That’s how you turn on a computer when it’s asleep, right?”

Luke smiled. It seemed like such an obvious thing, but he hadn’t thought of that. “Yeah, I think so. Good idea.”

He caught a glimpse of Akane’s smile before he walked over to the machine. He pressed a button, and the screen came on.

“Is that a sudoku?” Luke asked. “The professor and I solve them together all the time.” He instinctively looked towards the incinerator door the others were behind. They had given up hitting the door now, but he knew they were still there…

“Um, isn’t a sudoku only supposed to have numbers? There are letters too.”

“You’re right…” muttered Luke. “So, how are we supposed to do this?”

They both stared at the screen for a while. The sense of time running out just made them all the more anxious. They couldn’t stand here doing nothing! But they had no idea how to begin…

Akane began to cry again, and Luke’s heart was beating out of his chest. Flora hadn’t said anything for a while. What if she didn’t know about this machine?

“Hey! What are you doing?!”

A muffled yet roaring voice made them both jump. They turned in the direction it came from.

Zero was peering into the incinerator with the same grin as before. It made Akane’s blood run cold.

“Aw, don’t know what to do? It’s simple, really, but I might as well tell you! Just solve the puzzle on that machine.” He let out a crazed laugh. It was as if he’d lost his mind. Luke figured he probably had. Who in their right mind would do all of this to a bunch of kids?

“You’re a terrible person! I hate you!”

Luke turned to Akane in shock. He didn’t think she could shout that loud or harbour that much hate for one person. Not that he blamed her.

Zero laughed again. “Oh my! That’s not very nice. How could you call a gentleman like myself a terrible person?”

Something in Luke snapped. “How dare you call yourself a gentleman!” He balled his hands beside him into fists until his knuckles turned white.

Zero turned to Luke. His glare pierced into Luke’s soul, but he tried to stay strong. “What do you mean by that, boy?”

“A gentleman wouldn’t do anything like this! You set up this whole game yourself and put children in danger! A gentleman would never harm anyone! He would save as many people as he could, no matter what!”

As Luke shouted, he couldn’t see Hershel fighting back tears. Daisuke and the two children were leaning against the door, exhausted with worry, but Hershel couldn’t let Luke out of his sight. When he heard Luke say those things, he knew then that he had raised Luke well. He might not be his child, but he was proud of him nonetheless. Thankfully, the others couldn’t see him crying.

Zero effortlessly steered away from the jabs that Luke was making, and soon enough, he was explaining that all they had to do was solve the puzzle to make the incinerator stop. Apparently, he had set everything up, so they could escape. There was the bracelet he had scanned onto the RED that added with Luke and Akane’s numbers which would make 9, and the morphogenetic field that both of them had access to.

As soon as Luke had heard that, he ran off towards the machine. He didn’t even let Zero finish his sentence. Akane quickly followed. Zero, realizing he was being totally ignored, huffed but continued to watch them.

“But… but we can’t access the field!” Akane stuttered, her eyes welling with tears again. “My brother isn’t in the other incinerator! He can’t see this machine from the outside!”

“Akane, it’s okay. I can talk to Flora. We’ll get out of here.”

“Oh, of course.” In her panic, Akane had forgotten about the power that Luke had. He could transmit and receive! She sighed. It would be so cool if she could do that too…

_ Flora! We need your help! How the hell do we work this thing?! _

* * *

“Wait!”

Flora’s shout stopped Yuki from typing anything in.

“What is it?” she asked, worried.

“Luke just spoke to me. He has this machine too, and he needs help with it. I don’t want us to do too much without letting him know.”

“Oh, right. Of course.”

The voice rang out again. “ Incineration will take place in six minutes.”

“Shit!” Flora clapped a hand over her mouth. Whenever she did swear, the professor would scold her, especially if Luke was around. There were even younger children here, but neither of them seemed to mind.

“Okay, step back, you two.” Yuki put an arm out and let Flora have access to the machine. Not that she knew how to solve this.

“I guess we have to switch the letters in the square for the right ones?” Flora asked, turning to the others for help.

Yuki shrugged. “That’s what I found. Don’t worry, we’ll be here if you need help.”

“Yeah! You can do it, Flora!” Clover, even with tear tracks staining her cheeks, seemed to be encouraging her. River gave her a thumbs up, wiping another tear away.

Flora smiled. She could do this.

She let Luke know what Yuki and she had figured out, and the both of them worked through the puzzle. Admittedly, once Luke understood, he helped Flora more than she helped him, but it was a team effort.

They switched out the letters in the grid until the bottom squares spelled ‘password’, and the blue squares all contained a number nine. The screen then switched to a different display.

_ Please enter password. _

Without thinking, Flora entered a nine and told Luke to do the same. It seemed too obvious to be right, but it turned out to be correct.

_ Yes! We did it, Luke! Did you get it? _

Luke could almost cry with happiness. He turned to Akane with the biggest smile on his face. She was smiling too. 

_ Yeah! Now, you just need to press enter! _

In all her excitement, she had almost forgotten.  _ Oh, of course! You do it at the same time, alright? _

They both pressed the button. Luke was a little quicker than Flora, but it didn’t matter. For both of them, the same message was spoken.

“Emergency shutdown command has been confirmed. Incineration system has been disabled.”

As soon as both of them had confirmed that the incinerator wasn’t going to burn them alive anymore, they all sprinted to the 9 door.

Luke and Akane slammed their hands onto the RED, remembering to take the bracelet on the floor, while, Flora, Clover, River, and Yuki did the same.

Luke and Flora pulled their respective levers, and left the incinerator.

* * *

Luke and Akane rushed out of the 9 door. They both stood in shock as it slid closed behind them. The three bracelets had begun to beep, but neither of them noticed.

“What are you two doing?! Scan your bracelets already!” Aoi was the one to break them out of their frozen states.

Akane tore her eyes away from her brother and ran to the DEAD. Luke quickly followed and scanned his bracelet too.

Once Luke had pulled the lever and the beeping had stopped, Akane ran into Aoi’s arms. They both cried hard. Luke almost cried from watching them.

“Words can’t explain how relieved I am to see you well, Luke.”

Luke whirled around to see Hershel. His face looked puffy. If he wasn’t mistaken…

“Professor, have you been crying?”

Hershel started and hid his surprise with a cough. “Of course not, my boy. I…” His voice trailed off.

Luke glanced to the side to see Light and Daisuke smirking at Hershel. It was clear they had noticed it too.

“It’s okay, Professor. I cried a lot in there too. It was so scary, I thought my heart was going to explode!”

Hershel chuckled. “I can only imagine the anguish you’ve gone through. I’m just glad to see that you’re safe now.”

Luke nodded. He had been trying to keep his composure for a while now, but it suddenly came crumbling down.

He ran towards Hershel and threw his arms around his waist. He was crying again, despite believing that he had no tears left.

Hershel caught Luke in a hug. He was reminded of when Luke left to go to America only a few months ago, but it was clear to see how much Luke had grown since then. Another tear escaped. He knew that the boy and Daisuke were watching, but he didn’t mind anymore. As long as everyone was safe.

Aoi had let go of Akane and composed himself. “Right. We should get going. We don’t want to run into Hongou again, or whatever his name was.”

“You’re right, kid,” Daisuke said. “Come on, let’s get up those stairs again. But  _ no one’s  _ going off on their own this time, you hear me?”

Everyone looked pointedly at Akane. She laughed awkwardly, wiping tears away. “Oh, I got what I came for. It’s okay. Look!”

Out of her pocket, she took out a little doll. It was the one she had told Luke about in the incinerator. “It was a birthday present for my friend, but it fell out of my pocket when we slid down the vent earlier.”

“That’s very admirable of you, young lady,” Hershel began, “but I think your friend would have much preferred you come out of this ship alive than you risking your life for a mere toy.”

Akane looked up at Hershel and considered his words. Then she nodded. “Yeah, that’s true! I’m glad I got it though!”

Luke was about to retort since he was the reason Akane had made it out alive, but Hershel and Daisuke were hurrying them along. They had to get out of here.

All six of them sprinted up the stairs they had previously come down. They ran out of breath quickly, but they knew that they couldn’t rest. Even if they didn’t meet Zero again, there was still a time limit for when this boat would sink. None of them had any idea what time it was now, but there couldn’t be long left. They couldn’t stop.

Finally, they reached a door. Daisuke barged his way to the front to open it then they came out onto the deck of the ship.

The six of them breathed deeply. It felt like an age since they had been able to breathe fresh air.

The five other children who had escaped through the 9 door were stood on the deck. Some of them were shivering, but they had decided to wait for the rest to come back anyway. It seemed they had faith in Daisuke and Hershel, after all.

Before any of the children could rejoice in finally meeting up again, Daisuke took charge.

“Come on, into that boat there! Don’t just stand there, go!”

All eleven of them climbed into one boat, which then lowered into the sea.

There were two pairs of oars, so Daisuke took one pair and Hershel took the other. Luke insisted he helped, but Hershel wouldn’t have it. 

“Luke, you have been through enough today, more stress than I can even imagine, so you deserve at least some rest.”

“Oh…” Luke hadn’t really thought of that. Adrenaline was still rushing through him from running up all those stairs. “Alright.”

So the two men began rowing all the kids home. Daisuke assumed that the ship couldn’t be far from the wharf since it would be meaningless to take the ship that far out to sea. 

“It was only used for a fucked up experiment, after all.”

“Daisuke,” Hershel hissed. “There are children on board.”

Daisuke chuckled. “I think with what they’ve all been through today, one little curse word won’t hurt ‘em.”

Hershel couldn’t help but agree.

Eventually, they were back on dry land. Now that they were all together and safe, they could finally relax. Luke felt as if he could collapse on the ground right there and sleep forever.

A few of the kids yawned, almost in response to his thoughts. The adrenaline must have worn off for them too.

Daisuke, however, wasn’t ready to rest yet. He still had work to do. "Alright, kids. I'm taking you back to the police station where you can stay until I figure out what to do with ya. I'll ring all your parents, and we can work something out, okay?"

All nine of them nodded, but Luke made sure to stick close to the professor. There was no way he was leaving his side now.

However, as Daisuke started to round them all up, Light put up a hand.

"I apologize for interrupting, Officer, but we also have siblings that still need to be found. I'm not sure where they are at the moment, but they were participating in a similar 'game' to us. And I, for one, would like to be reunited with my sister."

Daisuke looked to Hershel in panic. It seemed that he had forgotten about the other kids.

Hershel, who had also momentarily forgotten, cleared his throat. Light turned to him. "Of course, we will find your sister, young man. We will also make sure that all your brothers and sisters return safely. However, if we don't know where they're located then…"

Hershel fell silent. He wasn't sure how to continue until Akane spoke.

"Luke, you can just talk to your sister, right? You can transmit to her too!"

All eyes were now on Luke. The children knew about this power, of course, but Hershel and Daisuke were clueless.

"What's this now?" Hershel smirked at Luke, who had failed to hide his burning cheeks.

"Oh, um," he scratched the back of his neck awkwardly, "it's just a thing I figured out I can do now. I'll be able to tell you where the other kids are."

"Woah, can you read minds or something?" Daisuke asked incredulously.

Luke laughed. "Something like that."

He nodded. "Well, kid, if you figure out where they are, come to the station and let me know. I don't want to keep these kids' parents waiting any longer, alright?"

"Of course," Luke and Hershel said in unison.

Nona smiled to Luke. "Well, see ya, Luke. It's been great getting to know you, considering, you know, everything."

Luke chuckled, aware of Hershel smirking at him. He tried to ignore it. "Yeah, you too. I wish we all met in different circumstances."

"I couldn't agree more," Light smiled. "I hope we can all meet again."

"Come on then, you guys," Daisuke brought out an arm. "This won't be the last time you all meet, I’m sure."

Despite this, all the kids waved to Luke before they turned around. Aoi gave him a smile. They both knew what that meant.  _ Thank you for saving my sister. _

"It looks like you've made some friends there, my boy," Hershel smiled as Daisuke and the kids walked away.

Luke grinned. "Yeah, I did. I suppose when you're in a life or death situation, you have to get along with the people you're with."

Hershel fell silent. He couldn't begin to imagine what Luke and the others had been through. Speaking of...

"What about Flora?" Hershel asked. "Could you find out where she is?"

"Well," Luke sighed. "I can try."

But try as he might, Luke couldn’t contact her. Hershel could clearly see he was straining himself, so he lay a comforting hand on his shoulder.

“Luke, don’t exert yourself. You’ve endured a lot today.”

Luke sighed and opened his eyes. “Yeah… I know. I swear I could talk to her, Professor! We talked to each other all the time when we were playing the game!”

Hershel chuckled. “I believe you, my boy. Perhaps, you can only contact Flora under certain conditions, and the game might have been testing this power.”

Luke’s eyes widened. “Oh! That’s it! We can only transmit and receive information when our lives are in danger.”

“That could be one possibility,” Hershel murmured. “It makes sense considering we are now back on dry land and in no sense of danger.”

Luke nodded. Despite now knowing why he had this power, he still couldn’t speak to Flora. He couldn’t recall her ever telling him where she was. Maybe she didn’t even know herself.

He sighed. “I really hope they get out soon.”

Hershel bowed his head, so Luke couldn’t see his eyes welling with tears. “Me too, Luke.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> originally, i intended the puzzle to be a sudoku because it was one when i played 999 on the ds, but i was watching a walkthrough on the steam version (i’m guessing) so it was a different puzzle. I only realised until i finished writing that part haha. but i’m going to keep it as the password puzzle otherwise luke wouldn’t even need any help solving it and it would kinda defeat the purpose of the morphogenetic field


	20. Chapter 20

Flora, Clover, River, and Yuki burst out of the door at the top of the stairs, and they were blinded by the sunlight.

Flora shielded her eyes. “Aah, that sun is bright.”

“I guess we really were in the desert, after all,” Yuki murmured, shielding her eyes too to watch the sunrise.

“The sky is so pretty,” Clover sniffed. “I thought I’d never see it again.”

River took Clover’s hand and gave it a small squeeze. She knew exactly what Clover meant. They’d all been in that building for so long, it felt like they’d never breathe fresh air again.

The two younger girls jumped as they felt something fall onto their linked hands. They both looked over to see their two bracelets lying on top of each other. Flora’s and Yuki’s had fallen to the floor.

“Zero did say that one of the ways to take our bracelets off was if we escaped,” Flora said, mostly to herself.

They all continued to look around for a while until they spotted some familiar faces on the sand below. They were by two jeeps. Flora felt relief rush through her. Zero had left them a way to escape the desert. She had begun to worry that they would be stuck here.

The four of them rushed down the steps to the ground below. They didn’t realize how high up they’d been until they looked back on the building.

“Woah… So we were inside here the whole time?” River asked. She knew, of course, that they weren’t really on a ship, but it was easy to forget. The whole place looked a lot like a real ship.

On the ground, they met up with the rest of the team. Ennea explained that they had all been debating on who was going to drive.

“Oh, and we were waiting for you, of course,” Iris added. “I was so worried.”

“Don’t worry, we’re safe now,” Yuki smiled. “Flora saved us!”

“What? No, I didn’t!” Flora’s face turned scarlet. “We weren’t in any real danger.”

“Well, you saved the two others then,” Yuki corrected. “And you saved us from having to stay inside that musty old incinerator forever.”

“Okay… Um, thanks.” 

She really didn’t see how she had been of any help. Luke could have easily solved the puzzle on his own once she explained how it worked. Plus, Yuki, Clover, and River had helped from the sidelines. She barely did anything in there.

“I really think I should be the one to drive,” Iris said. It seemed she was continuing on from their earlier discussion. “I’m the oldest, and I’ve had a few lessons. I know that it’s only desert, but we’d be in trouble if we drove into a town, and one of you were driving.”

Flora was surprised to see Iris sticking up for herself, but it was for something important, so she understood.

“Fine,” Ennea sighed.

Flora hid a smile. It seemed that Ennea had been the one arguing before.

“So Flora’s driving the other jeep, yeah?” Ennea asked.

Flora stared at her for a while. “Why me?”

She shrugged. “You’re the oldest.”

“Yeah, but I can’t drive! I don’t even know the first thing about it!”

Neptune stepped forward, noticing that Flora was getting stressed. “Me and Hikaru know a bit about cars. Our dad taught us, so we can help you with the basics.”

“Oh.” Flora let out a sigh of relief. She had begun to panic that they would be trapped here. “Thank you.”

After some more discussing, they all decided that Hikaru, Neptune, and Clover would accompany Flora in one jeep and the others would join Iris. No one wanted to admit it, but most of the children trusted Iris more with driving than Flora.

They agreed on stopping to rest whenever they hit civilization, then Iris and her group got into the jeep.

“See you later!” Iris waved as she got into the driver’s seat.

Flora, Hikaru, Neptune, and Clover watched the jeep drive away, waving to them until they were too far away.

Flora took a deep breath. “I guess we should follow them then.”

“I could sit in the passenger side if you want?” Hikaru offered as they walked over to the remaining jeep.

“That would be nice, thank you.”

Flora got into the driver’s seat, closely followed by Hikaru in the passenger’s seat, and Neptune and Clover in the back.

Thankfully, the keys were already in the ignition so the engine could be turned on easily enough. Flora felt embarrassed asking so many questions, but Hikaru and Neptune assured her it was no problem at all.

Once Hikaru had explained the pedals and the gear stick, Flora was ready to go or as ready as she would ever be.

There was a lot of stalling but, in the end, Flora began to drive away from the building. She couldn’t help but smile. This was the first time since she had woken up inside that building that she felt like she had done something useful. She had help, of course, but she had started the car on her own. And now, she would have to drive it herself. She felt it was a silly thing to be proud of, but she couldn’t help herself.

A sudden thought caused her to brake hard. Clover and Neptune had to hold onto the backs of the seats in front to stop themselves from hitting their heads.

“Sorry!” Flora called. “I just need to tell Luke where we are, so he and the others can come find us."

"Oh, alright," Hikaru said, trying to hide his frightened expression.

Flora tried her hardest to access the morphogenetic field, but it was as if someone had flipped the off switch. It just wasn't there anymore.

"Um, it's not working," Flora said, worriedly. "Can you guys try it too?"

Hikaru, Neptune, and Clover did so, but it didn't work for them either.

"Huh, that's weird," Clover mumbled. “I guess we can’t access the field anymore.”

“Maybe it’s because we’re not in danger anymore?” Hikaru suggested.

Flora shrugged then sighed. “Maybe. I guess we’re on our own then.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll be fine,” Neptune smiled. “As long as you don’t crash the car or something.”

She laughed. “There’s only desert out here. I think I’ll be fine.”

“You  _ think?  _ That’s not very comforting,” Clover said, pulling her seatbelt tighter around her.

Flora chose to ignore that comment and kept driving. Since there was nothing else around, it was very easy for Flora to just keep her foot on the pedal. She didn’t realize she had been speeding until Clover spoke up.

“Take your foot off the gas pedal! We’re going way too fast!”

Flora jumped at the noise but quickly obeyed. “Ah, sorry! I didn’t realize…”

Hikaru stared at the speedometer. “Woah, you were going 100 miles per hour!”

“I guess that is pretty fast…” Flora murmured. She glanced in the rearview mirror. “Are you okay, Clover?”

She made a show of looking out of the window, and not at Flora. “Yeah, I guess.”

Even if Clover had calmed down, Flora made sure to keep to a reasonable speed just in case. They’d all been through enough as it was.

Soon, they made it onto a freeway, which was good news for them. However, that meant they may come into contact with other cars. Having never driven before, the mere thought of that made Flora anxious.

Hikaru noticed and patted her on the shoulder. “Hey, you’ll be fine. There’s no one here anyway.”

“Yeah, I guess so,” she mumbled, tightening her hands on the steering wheel.

Thankfully, there were no cars around since it was still early morning. When they passed a sign saying ‘Welcome to White Pine County’, the four of them sighed with relief. Flora was already exhausted from driving this much, and the other three had felt it too. None of them had felt relaxed since they had got into the car. 

Eventually, they began to see buildings and a short while later, Flora spotted a jeep identical to theirs.

She tried her best to park at the side of the road. She knew the front of the jeep was sticking out, but there didn’t seem to be many cars around, so it didn’t matter.

The four of them got out of the car, three of them trying to hide how relieved they were, and joined the others.

“So, how was that?” Iris asked Flora with a smirk.

“I never want to drive again,” Flora said with her head in her hands.

Iris giggled. “Once you learn and practice, it isn’t so bad.”

Flora shook her head. After all that they’d been through in building Q, driving a car just added to her stress. When she got back to the Tritons’ apartment, all she wanted to do was sleep forever.

“So I doubt we’re gonna be driving all the way back ourselves?” Ennea asked.

Flora didn’t respond, but her passengers shook their heads vigorously. Even Iris didn’t seem keen. She was already tired from only two hours of driving. She didn’t think she could concentrate for much longer.

With her question answered, Ennea began to look around. “Alright. Is there a phone box anywhere?”

“I think I can see one down there,” Yuki pointed far off in the distance. “It’s a bit far though. I’m too tired.”

Most of the kids felt the same. Noel and River had even dozed off while Iris was driving. Clover wished the same could be said for her.

“I’ll go,” Noel volunteered. “I had a nap, so I don’t feel that tired. I could go for a run anyway.”

“Sure,” Ennea smiled. “Better you than me.”

“Where are you going to call?” Flora asked, suddenly alert. She had a specific place in mind for Noel. 

“Um, I don’t know. The local police station, I guess,” Noel shrugged.

“Could you call this number?” Flora took out a piece of paper from her dress. It was a miracle it hadn’t fallen out during everything they’d been through. Hershel had given it to her just in case she ever got lost in the city. Flora had taken it but never thought there would be a need for it. She was very grateful she still had it now though.

“Whose is this number?” Noel frowned. 

“It’s my friend’s parents. They’ll be able to contact my dad. He saved everyone on the passenger liner... or some of them anyway. He’ll be able to help. He knows a police officer too.”

“Oh, okay…” Noel hadn’t been in the incinerator to hear Flora’s explanation of events, but she took the piece of paper anyway. “Isn’t it better if you talk to them?”

Flora winced. She didn’t know if she would be able to talk to Luke’s parents or anyone for that matter. Just thinking about what had gone on made her emotional.

Noel, noticing Flora’s hesitancy, gave her a sympathetic smile. “Look, I can talk to them, but they might not believe me when I explain what’s happened. If you at least say hi to them, they’ll know it’s for real.”

Flora nodded. She couldn’t argue with that. “Okay.”

Noel jogged ahead of Flora. She didn’t understand how Noel still had energy. Sure, she’d slept for a bit in the car, but Flora felt that she would be exhausted even if she’d slept for hours.

Flora finally caught up to Noel, who had already started explaining everything.

“Oh, I have Flora with me, if you want to speak to her.”

Flora heard the Brenda’s crackly voice on the other end. “Flora Reinhold?! Is she okay?!”

“I’ll pass you over to her.”

Flora took the phone from Noel’s hand and took a deep breath. She didn’t know how they would react. “Um, hi, Mrs Triton.”

“Flora! Oh my gosh! We were so worried about you! Is Luke with you?”

“No. I…” She felt tears welling up in her eyes, but she forced them down. She knew he was okay, but it was hard to forget how close he had been to  _ not  _ being okay. “I’m sorry. He’s not with me. He’s okay though. The professor saved him.”

There was a pause. Flora could imagine Brenda frowning. “Didn’t he save you too?”

Flora shrugged. She was used to Luke being more important than her. “He was more in danger than I was. Noel may have explained that already.”

“Yes… She did.”

Flora figured she should change the subject, and quickly. “Well, would you be able to call the police station for us? Maybe the police officer who was with the professor can come and get us.”

“Of course, dear! We’ll do that right away!”

“Thank you…”

“We’ll see you soon, okay? And we’ll order pizza for when you all come home!”

Flora smiled softly. She didn’t feel hungry, even though she hadn’t eaten anything for hours, but she was grateful anyway. “Thank you. I hope you and Mr Triton haven’t been too worried.”

She heard a gruff laugh near the phone. Brenda laughed as well. “It was impossible  _ not  _ to worry! But we’re just happy you’re both safe. I’ll ring the police station now.”

Flora nodded. She’d run out of energy for talking.

“See you soon, Flora.”

“Bye.”

Flora hung up the phone back on its cradle and turned to Noel. “Let’s go back.”

Noel gave her a smile and nodded.

They both walked back to the group and told them the plan.

“I guess we’ll have to wait,” Neptune sighed.

“Yeah, it’s all we can do,” Flora said.

She was reminded that this was yet another time that she was supposed to wait for the professor to come rescue her. Could she ever do anything for herself?

* * *

Luke and Hershel had retired to sitting on the ground. They were still at the wharf. Luke had suggested going back to his apartment, but Hershel insisted they waited a bit longer. It was almost like he thought that if they waited, Flora would materialize out of thin air in front of them.

Luke was fiddling his sleeves, becoming restless. He thought he would feel exhausted by now, but he still had a surprising amount of energy left. It was then that he realized something was missing.

"My bracelet's come off," Luke muttered to himself.

Hershel had barely heard him. "What's that, my boy?"

"We were all wearing bracelets on the ship. You saw them, didn't you?"

Hershel nodded. He did remember seeing something on the children's wrists. He had bigger things to worry about back then, however.

"Well, we needed them to get through the numbered doors, you see. That was the whole point of the game."

Luke continued to explain the bracelets. Hershel was usually a good listener, but all the words Luke was saying were going straight over his head. He nodded along, regardless, until Luke was finished.

"They would only come off if we escaped or…" The words got stuck in his throat.

"I understand," Hershel said quickly. He didn’t particularly want to hear the words come out of Luke’s mouth either.

Luke was relieved he didn't have to finish his sentence. "Yeah. They must have come off before we got into the lifeboats because I don't remember them coming off at all."

Hershel smiled. "It was a very stressful time."

"You can say that again," Luke chuckled.

Hershel was going to say some more but before he could, they were interrupted by a loud, booming voice. It was one that was very familiar to both of them.

Daisuke was running right over to them. Both Luke and Hershel quickly got up from the ground. Hershel was trying hard not to hope for good news, but he couldn’t help himself. All he wanted was for Flora to be okay.

He stopped in front of them with his hands on his knees. Hershel and Luke waited impatiently for his breath to come back.

Finally, he spoke. “Guys! I just got a call from someone named Brenda Triton. Is she a relative of yours?” He glanced to Luke.

Luke grinned. “Yeah! That’s my mom! But… why did she call the police station?”

“She told me she got a call from two girls. Noel and Flora, maybe?”

“Flora!” Luke and Hershel shouted in unison.

“Is she alright?!” Hershel continued

“Yeah, yeah. She’s fine!” Daisuke rushed to answer, seeing Hershel’s desperate expression. “They’re just stuck. Apparently they drove through the desert to find the nearest city. They’re in Ely.”

Hershel was confused, but Luke quickly explained that it was a city in Nevada only a few hours drive from where they were.

Hershel felt relief wash through him. At least they were close by. “Can we go to them?”

Daisuke chuckled. “I thought you might ask that. I’m going to have a colleague of mine drive with me to find them. Do you two wanna tag along?”

“Of course!” Luke said. “I need to see her!”

Hershel nodded enthusiastically. He felt the same as Luke.

“Let’s get going then!”

The three of them went back to the police station and through to the back where two police vans were ready to go.

The other police officer gave them all a short wave.

“Are they coming with us, officer?” He asked Daisuke.

“Yep. They know one of the kids, and Professor Layton here helped me rescue the others.”

Hershel only smiled bashfully. He really didn’t think he’d helped all that much. If Daisuke hadn’t been able to track down the ship, he wouldn’t have been able to rescue them at all.

They didn’t spend very long outside. They all knew they needed to get to the kids as soon as they could.

Hershel, Luke, and Daisuke got into one van, and the other officer got into the other. Hershel was glad he hadn’t been asked to drive anywhere. He was comfortable driving in England, but America seemed too daunting for him even without everything that had gone on.

Daisuke wasted no time in getting on the road. He seemed as determined as Hershel did, to his relief. Hershel almost considered asking if Daisuke didn’t mind just going  _ a little  _ over the speed limit to get there quicker, then immediately shook himself of that idea. A police officer of all people wouldn’t disobey the law!

The four-hour drive seemed like years before they passed into White Pine County.

“Oh, come on! Where are they?!” Luke seemed restless as he looked out of all the windows to try and see Flora and the others.

Daisuke chuckled. “We’ll see them soon. Don’t you worry.”

And, sure enough, a few minutes later, they saw two jeeps just like Brenda described on the phone to Daisuke.

“Is that them?” he asked.

Hershel and Luke both scrambled to look over the backseats and saw a group of kids sat at the side of the road. Most of them weren’t familiar to them both, but there was one girl who looked  _ very _ familiar. The group had all looked up a while back when they heard cars driving down the road.

“Flora!” Luke was waving frantically, even though they were still too far away for anyone to see him.

Hershel chuckled, happy to see Luke back to his old self. Despite him not showing it, he was excited to see Flora as Luke was.

Finally, the two police vans were parked by the curb, opposite the jeeps. There were a series of gasps from the children. Seeing police vans was good news in this case. They could finally go home.

The other officer made sure to get out of his van behind Daisuke and the two passengers. From how Daisuke had briefed him, the kids would probably be more comfortable seeing them first.

All the kids seemed happy to see the four of them, but Flora was the happiest. 

“Professor! Luke!” She was already close to tears.

“Flora!” Luke, on the other hand, was already crying.

Flora barely had time to react before Luke almost bowled her over in a hug. They both began to cry then. Despite them still being able to communicate during the game, it wasn’t the same as seeing each other in person.

“Oh, I’m so glad you’re safe,” Flora said, her voice cracking. “I was so worried.”

“I’m glad you are too!” Luke smiled, pulling away from the hug.

Flora laughed, wiping away her tears. “You shouldn’t worry about me. I wasn’t in any danger.”

“Yeah, but that Zero was crazy! He could’ve done something to you too!”

Flora frowned. “You found out who Zero was?”

“Yeah!” Luke then frowned too. What did she mean? “Didn’t you find out too?”

She shook her head. “No.”

“Hm. Weird.”

The two of them fell silent. Flora couldn’t understand why Luke had found Zero, but she hadn’t. There hadn’t been anyone else in the building with them, unless it was one of the kids? That seemed unlikely to her. It was funny though. She never suspected any of them to be behind this whole game. She had almost forgotten about Zero entirely. Her only priority was saving Luke, no matter whose fault it was.

She was pulled out of her thoughts by some slow footsteps coming towards her. She looked up and her eyes filled with tears again.

“Hello, Flora.” Hershel’s voice cracked noticeably, but he made no effort to hide it. It was clear that he had been crying.

“Papa!”

Just as Luke had done to her, Flora threw herself at Hershel, almost knocking off his hat.

“I’m so glad you’re safe,” he mumbled, trying his hardest not to cry in front of all these people.

“Thank you for saving Luke.” Despite the harbored jealousy Flora had before, she genuinely meant what she said.

Once the two had parted, Daisuke turned to the rest of the kids. He explained the situation to them about their brothers and sisters being back at his police station in Clark County. 

The other kids were hesitant to agree but seeing that Flora was comfortable with them and seemed to know them, they relaxed a little.

It was weird getting into a police car for all of them, but they knew it wouldn’t be for long.

Hikaru, Neptune, Yuki, River, and Clover got into the van with the other police officer. Since they had brought a van along instead of just a car, more of the kids would be able to fit in the back. Neptune was allowed to ride shotgun. Hershel and Luke got back into Daisuke’s van along with Flora, Noel, Iris, and Ennea.

It was just as long a drive as on the way there, but it seemed to go faster this time. No one was worrying or impatient anymore. There was only excitement for the kids who had yet to be reunited with their siblings.

Since there was nothing else to do but talk, Flora happily told Hershel and Luke that it was Noel’s idea to find a payphone and call for help. While Flora was explaining this, Noel made sure to keep her face turned away from the rest of them so no one saw her face turn red.

“It was very good of you to think to get in touch with us, young lady,” Hershel smiled once Flora had finished explaining.

“Oh, um, thank you, sir.” Noel hadn’t expected anyone to say anything in return. She’d almost hoped no one would, but she couldn’t ignore him. “It was nothing, really.”

The group fell silent as they all looked out of the windows, watching the world go by. Then Luke suddenly remembered something.

“Say, what’s going to happen to those jeeps that we found at the side of the road?”

“Oh, those are ours,” Iris said. “Flora and I drove them from the building we escaped.”

“Flora, you drove a car?!” Luke couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Iris giggled at his reaction whereas Flora turned as bright red as Noel had been.

“Um, I guess so. It was only in the desert though! It’s barely driving if there’s no one around.”

Hershel chuckled. “Even so, I’m proud of you for doing that, Flora. It mustn’t have been easy.”

“Well, yes, but…” Flora trailed off. She wasn’t used to him complimenting her like this. It was usually Luke who got all the praise.

“I am also proud of both of you, Luke Flora,” Hershel continued. “I can’t say I completely understand what you both went through during this time, but I’m proud of you for escaping and solving your way out.”

“Um, thank you.” Flora awkwardly looked down at her hands, blush still prominent on her cheeks.

“Thank you, Professor! I couldn’t have got out without Flora.” Luke was more accepting of Hershel’s compliment.

Flora gave a pointed look to Luke. “You really didn’t need me, Luke. You could’ve solved all those puzzles even by yourself.”

Luke shrugged sheepishly. “I mean, I probably could’ve but Zero didn’t give us clues on purpose. Only you could give me them. I would’ve had no clue what to do if you weren’t there!”

Flora smiled weakly. She couldn’t argue with that. “I guess you’re right.”

Daisuke had been patiently waiting to tell them about the jeeps. He waited until the conversation had died down before speaking. “About those jeeps, I’m gonna drive back with my team to see if we can figure out who bought ‘em. It’d be nice to know who was in charge of this building all the way out here.”

Hershel nodded. “I could assist you, if you’d like.”

Daisuke gave a bark of laughter. “Professor, you’ve done more than enough to help me. You deserve a break with your family, trust me.”

Hershel opened his mouth to retort but realized it was no use. He really did feel exhausted. “You’re right, Officer. I hope you find the perpetrator for all this.”

“Thank you, Professor. I guess it’ll be kinda easy since we know that whoever did this was working with that bastard Hongou. But whoever they are, they’ll certainly get what’s coming to them.”

“I very much hope so,” Hershel muttered. He wasn’t usually a violent man, but whoever did this to a group of children, two of them being very close to him, deserved whatever Daisuke had in mind for them.

Soon, the van fell silent again. Flora was quick to fall asleep. She had been awake for over 12 hours and during that time, she had been running around trying to solve puzzles, worrying that her best friend and other kids were going to die if she didn’t help them escape, and driving across a desert and an American freeway with absolutely no previous experience of driving whatsoever. All of that would tire anyone out.

Luke jokingly poked her face a few times until Hershel told him to stop. She didn’t wake up anyway.

“Let her sleep, Luke,” he mumbled.

“Sorry, Professor.”

It wasn’t long before all the children were asleep. Hershel and Daisuke, of course, stayed awake but there wasn’t much to talk about anymore. They’d saved the kids and that was what was important. Soon, it would all be over, and they can go back to normal lives again.


	21. Chapter 21

Finally, they arrived in Clark County, and Daisuke and his colleague pulled up at the back of the police station. Hershel had to nudge Luke and Flora awake then Flora woke up the other girls.

“We’re here,” Daisuke said with a grin.

Iris, Ennea, and Noel all but threw themselves out of the van. Flora giggled at the display and followed them out along with Luke, Hershel, and Daisuke.

It seemed like the rest of the kids were just as excited. Clover was already running into the police station to try and find her brother.

“Guess we’d better follow her,” Daisuke chuckled.

They all walked into the station where Daisuke was able to catch up with Clover and point her in the right direction. The kids from the passenger liner, minus Luke, were all sitting in a separate room just off the reception. Daisuke had insisted that there was no need for an officer to watch over them. He was sure they’d had enough of being watched for today, if not for a lifetime. If any of them tried to wander, the receptionist would notice and help them.

Thankfully, none of them had. They were either sitting in silence or asleep. When the door opened, they all gasped and nudged any sleeping children awake.

Squeals and cries of joy filled the room as all the children were reunited. 

Clover threw herself at Light, crying into his jacket. He chuckled softly, trying not to cry himself. Nona and Ennea, Iris and Jasmine, and Robin and Noel were all hugging each other in the center of the room. Akira was staring in shock at her sister, Yuki, who had to pick Akira up to hug her. Soon, Akira came to her senses and she began to cry. Yuki cried too, arguably more than Akira did. River ran to Kenji, who almost couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He picked her up and spun her around, making her giggle through her tears.

Luke, Flora, Hikaru, and Neptune were stood by the door since they didn’t have anyone to reunite with. Flora was in tears watching them all, and so were the boys. Hershel and Daisuke were behind the children. Daisuke knew he had to be professional, but he couldn’t help shedding a tear too.

Daisuke laughed weakly as he saw Hershel had noticed him. “Sorry, Professor. I can’t help it.”

Hershel smiled. “It’s quite alright, Daisuke. It’s quite natural to become emotional at a time like this.”

“You’re right,” he sniffed.

Aoi and Akane were still sitting on chairs, watching everyone else around them. Of course, they were happy for the others, but they were both secretly glad that they had been able to stay together. It made all of this just a little more bearable.

Luke and Aoi caught each other’s eye, and Aoi gave him a thumbs up. Luke smiled in return. Akane looked up in turn and beamed as she saw Luke.

“Luke!” Akane ran over and hugged him. “I thought we wouldn’t see you again!”

He laughed. “Of course, you would! We just went to find the others, then we came straight back.”

They both parted from the hug then Akane smiled again. Luke was glad to see her in higher spirits. 

“I’m really glad they’re all back,” she said.

“Me too.”

The conversation was interrupted by Luke yawning. Flora followed soon after. Even though they had both slept, they still felt exhausted. It seemed like the others were too. Everyone was either sat on chairs or on the floor now, except Akane.

“I think that’s our cue to go home,” Hershel smiled.

“What? No!” Akane pouted. “We’ve only just got together again!”

Luke shrugged. He agreed with Akane, but he knew the professor was right. “My parents are waiting for us. I really don’t want to make them wait much longer.”

Akane considered his words then nodded. “Yeah, you’re right. All our parents are probably worried sick.” Her smile from before faltered a little as she said this. Luke noticed but decided not to question it. A part of him didn’t want to know the answer.

He gave her a smile, hoping to cheer her back up. “Yeah. We’ll keep in touch, okay?”

Akane seemed to be happy with that. “Okay!”

She ran back over to her brother and told him something that made him roll his eyes.

“You’re not saying we have to keep in touch with blue boy?” Aoi said this loud enough so Luke could hear.

Luke laughed. “You’re not getting rid of me that easily!”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Aoi replied with a wink.

Hershel chuckled at Aoi’s remark then turned to Daisuke. “It was a pleasure working with you, Officer Akiyama.”

Daisuke smiled. He really would miss working with him. “The same to you, Professor.”

They briefly shook hands with a promise to ‘not be a stranger’, as Daisuke put it. Hershel knew he wouldn’t have time to visit America often, but he knew that he would try his best not to lose touch.

“We’ll get these kids back with their parents, don’t you worry,” Daisuke said proudly.

“I wouldn’t expect anything less,” Hershel smiled.

Daisuke announced to the room that Hershel, Luke, and Flora would be leaving which was met with a lot of sad faces. They had all grown close to the three of them, even if they hadn’t been in each other’s company for long.

“We’ll keep in touch, I promise!” Flora smiled. She wasn’t exactly sure how they were going to do that yet, since she and her father were leaving for England soon, but she would try her best.

“What Flora said!” Luke was luckier since he at least lived in the same country as them. He was grateful for that.

The three of them gave one last wave then the door was shut behind them. Daisuke showed them out of the station, making the kids promise to look after themselves.

"We will!" Luke promised. 

Flora was more hesitant to respond, but she promised as well.

The three of them left the police station, with one last wave to Daisuke, and began to walk back to Luke's apartment. It was a short walk, but Hershel still constantly asked them if they were well enough to walk.

"Honestly, we're fine, Professor!" Flora giggled.  _ At least, physically,  _ she added in her head. She was glad Luke wouldn't be able to hear her anymore.

Once they got to Luke's apartment, the three of them were suddenly faced with a flight of stairs. All three of them groaned, but they knew they couldn’t just wait at the bottom. Despite Flora saying she was fine, that flight of stairs felt like a mountain to climb.

Hershel walked faster ahead of the two children, who were flagging, and knocked on Clark and Brenda's door. He couldn't wait any longer to see them.

The door swung open. Brenda stood in shock for a moment until she realized Hershel was standing in front of her. Her sleep-deprived brain was slowing her down.

“Hershel!”

“Hello, Brenda.” 

It suddenly occurred to Hershel that he didn’t know what to say at a time like this. Usually, when he came home from an investigation, no one was waiting for him to return. He had his students and Dean Delmona, but they all knew he would come back unharmed. They had stopped worrying for him a while back and instead asked him questions about his trip. Even when he returned Luke home, Clark and Brenda were more excited to have him home than worried for his safety. This had been the first time that Luke had been kidnapped, after all.

Brenda, unaware of Hershel’s internal monologue, continued to speak. “Where's Luke? Where's Flora? Are they okay?!" 

Hershel placed a hand on her shoulder, noticing that she was getting more worked up by the second. "Please don't worry. They are just behind me."

Just as he said that, Luke and Flora came into view. Luke barely had time to react before Brenda lifted him up into a hug. She hugged him so tightly that he barely had a chance to breathe.

"Mum… can't breathe," he protested.

“Sorry!” Brenda quickly put him down, her cheeks pink from embarrassment. “I was just so worried about you. And you too, Flora. Oh my gosh, I’m just so glad you’re both okay.”

Flora smiled awkwardly. She didn’t quite know how to react. “I’m okay, Mrs Triton. Please don’t worry.” 

Despite her and Luke being close, she hadn’t met Luke’s parents many times, so she wasn’t comfortable yet with using their first names. Brenda didn’t seem to mind. She smiled warmly in return.

Clark had heard the commotion from the kitchen and came out to see what the fuss was. He had recognized the voices, but he still found himself overcome with emotion to see his son home and safe.

“Luke! I’m so glad you’re alright.” He brushed falling tears away as he walked towards the front door.

“Dad! Don’t cry! Look, I’m fine.” Luke put his arms out for proof.

“Yes… Physically, you’re alright, but you must have been through quite an ordeal.”

Luke sighed. He had hoped that his dad would stop worrying once he’d said that.

“Anyway, come in! We’ll put the kettle on and order pizzas!” Brenda hurried them all inside.

Brenda had been in the way before, but now that the group had dispersed somewhat, Clark wasted no time in giving Luke a hug.

Luke giggled and wrapped his arms around his dad’s neck. It felt like forever since he had seen them when it had only been half a day.

Flora had immediately retired to the couch. The exhaustion she had felt since she had arrived in Ely hadn’t faded, even when she had slept on her way back. Hershel went to sit next to her. He could tell that she was tired. Flora was usually bubbly and happy, but there was none of that now.

“Are you alright, my dear?” he asked softly.

Flora shook her head. “I’m so tired, but it won’t go away even if I sleep.”

Hershel pulled her into a hug. He figured that was all he could do for her, at least for now.

She buried her face into his chest. They sat there for a while. Flora could hear Clark and Brenda talking - it sounded like Clark was on the phone - then footsteps as someone came to sit down on the chair next to them. She assumed it was Luke or Brenda, but she didn’t bother to look up.

“Yours and Flora’s tea is just on the table,” Brenda said to Hershel.

“Thank you, Brenda,” Hershel replied.

Brenda looked worriedly towards Flora. So did Luke, but neither of them said anything.

Clark came to sit down shortly afterwards, and they all sat in silence. Every once in a while, there was the clink of cups being lifted and put down on the table, but that was all. No one knew what to say.

Now that he was able to properly look at them, Hershel could see prominent shadows under Clark’s and Brenda’s eyes. They probably hadn’t slept since Luke and Flora had gone missing. He suddenly felt guilty for feeling awake, despite remembering that he had been anesthetized only a few hours ago.

Flora didn’t feel any less tired, but she was thirsty so she slowly sat up and parted from her father’s arms then reached for her cup of tea. It hurt Hershel to see Flora so unresponsive like this. He wished he could do something to help, but he couldn’t think of anything at all that would make her feel better. He at least hoped tea would do her some good or, if not, the pizza that would be arriving soon.

They continued to sit in silence, drinking their tea, until someone knocked on the door. It made them all jump.

Clark got up as quickly as possible, glad for an excuse to remove himself from the awkward situation. He thanked the delivery boy and came back into the room with five pizza boxes in his hands.

“Our pizzas are here,” he smiled as he put them down on the coffee table, once Brenda had made room.

“Ooh, great!” Luke grinned.

Clark made sure everyone had the correct pizzas then they sat down to eat.

Hershel quirked an eyebrow as he saw Luke preparing to dig into his own pizza. “Luke, are you sure you’re able to eat all of that yourself?”

Luke laughed. “Of course, Professor! I mean, I really haven’t eaten all day. I’m starving. Aren’t you, Flora?”

“Mhm,” Flora mumbled in return. It was true that she was starving too, but she wasn’t sure if she would be able to eat a whole pizza to herself.

“If you can’t finish it, we can always put it in the fridge for tomorrow,” Brenda smiled.

“Thank you.”

Again, they ate in silence, but the atmosphere felt a little less sullen. Luke was more talkative now that he had food, and the rest felt better now that they were eating. It had been a stressful time for all of them, and now was their chance to recuperate.

Once they’d finished eating - Flora surprised herself by eating all of her pizza - they passed the time by watching TV. The background noise was comforting to Flora, and it also meant she didn’t need to make conversation. The same could be said for Luke. Although he felt better after eating food, he still wasn’t completely back to his old self.

Once it was late enough for them to sleep, Clark suggested retiring for the night, which everyone agreed upon. They decided on the same sleeping arrangements as before: Clark, Brenda, and Luke in their own rooms, Flora on the couch, and Hershel on the spare mattress.

The thought of falling asleep alone in a dark room scared Luke, but he didn’t protest. He didn’t want to embarrass himself. Besides, he’d survived through so much during the Nonary Game and more on his investigations with the professor. How was this any worse?

Flora was a little worried too. Falling asleep in the back of the police van surrounded by her friends and her father by her side was a lot different than sleeping alone. Hershel would be in the room with her, of course, but it still felt daunting. Plus, it was still light outside the first time she slept whereas it was dark now. Flora was tempted to ask if they could have some sort of light in the room, like a night light, but she felt too embarrassed to ask.

Hershel would usually notice when Flora was holding herself back from speaking up, but he was too tired now to see any of that. 

“Goodnight, my dear,” he mumbled sleepily, already pulling a blanket up to his chin.

“Um, goodnight,” Flora replied.

Hershel fell asleep almost immediately, but it took Flora longer. She was confused. She felt exhausted, and yet she couldn’t fall asleep? Perhaps it was something more than just plain exhaustion that tired her out.

Before she could think more on that, however, she felt herself drifting off to sleep.


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i can't believe this is the last chapter! it feels so weird to say that. it feels like i've been working on this fic forever haha.  
> as you can probably see, i started uploading this story in may so it's been a long ride. i think this is the longest and most complicated fic i've written, but i'm glad i wrote it! and i'm also appreciative of everyone who's read this, left a kudos or comment. so thank you for that and for sticking around. it means a lot.   
> anyway, i hope you enjoy this last chapter! i hope it's good since i kinda ran out of motivation for these last two chapters (i hadn't really planned this far), but i tried to write them as well as i could.

Despite his nap earlier, Luke found it fairly easy to fall asleep. It seemed he was still tired, after all.

He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had a nightmare, but he’d found himself worrying about having one that night. It turned out that he was right to be worried.

Luke was back on the passenger liner, playing the Nonary Game. He was in the incinerator room with Akane. The alarm was blaring and red light bounced off the walls, but there was no fire.

The two of them shared a confused look until they heard a voice come from the speakers.

“Your time is up.” Zero’s voice.

“What?!” Luke yelled. “What do you mean time’s up? We have loads of time!”

“You have run out of time. This ship will begin to sink. Don’t bother trying to escape. You’re too late!” There was a hysterical laugh. Akane covered her ears and screwed her eyes closed. It pierced through her.

“What?! No! We can’t be…” Luke trailed off. What was the point in yelling anymore? Zero was right. They were too late.

“I’m sorry, Akane,” Luke turned to her. “I’m sorry I couldn’t save you.”

Akane uncovered her ears and opened her eyes and grinned widely. “It’s okay, Luke! Junpei will save me in the future! Or I’ll save myself. I can’t remember how it works out, but it’ll be okay!”

Luke stared at Akane in bewilderment. “I… I don’t know what you mean.”

Akane only giggled in response.

Luke could clearly hear the telltale signs of water rushing above them. He looked to the ceiling, wondering how long it would take for it to get to them.

“Akane, wh-”

Luke spun around to ask Akane something, but she had disappeared.

“Akane? Akane?!”

He spun around and around until he was too dizzy, but he couldn’t see her anywhere.

Before he could call out to Akane again, water came crashing down into the incinerator. He was forced to the ground and took as many deep breaths as he could before he would have to hold it. 

The water came down miraculously fast, as if a hole had magically appeared in the ceiling. Soon, Luke was submerged in water. He easily found his way to the surface, but the water level was rising fast.

“Luke!”

Luke squinted his eyes to the sound and, on the far end of the room, he could see the professor crouching in the doorway to a huge metal door embedded in the incinerator wall. He was reaching an arm out for Luke.

“Professor! Hang on, I’m- I’m on my way!”

Luke tried to swim over to Hershel, but it was as if he was stuck in place. No matter how hard he tried to swim, he didn’t get any closer.

He only gave up when he became too tired to move any more. It was no use anyway. The water level was almost up to the ceiling. Hershel had to close the door to stop the water from claiming him too.

“I’m sorry, Professor,” were Luke’s last words before he went under.

* * *

“Ah!”

Luke's eyes flew open and he bolted upright, gasping for breath. He clutched his covers and anxiously felt his wrist. His bracelet wasn’t there. It was only then that he could relax somewhat.

_ It was only a dream,  _ he told himself.  _ It wasn’t real. _

But it felt real, and that was the problem. He sat for a while, trying to get his breath back. His heart was still racing, but it calmed down once he'd slowed his breathing.

Even after that, he knew he wouldn't be able to fall asleep again. He kept replaying the dream in his head. Yes, there were some things in his dream that would be impossible - the ship would sink a lot slower and the water wouldn't come from above - but the idea of Luke drowning would have been very possible. If Flora hadn't helped him with the last puzzle, he would be…

Luke shook his head violently. He shouldn't think about that now. All that was over with. And yet, his brain didn't seem to agree with him.

He wasn’t sure what time it was, but he decided to get up. Anything to stop him from thinking about the dream.

A part of him wanted to wake his parents, but he knew they needed their rest. He had noticed how tired they'd looked earlier. He didn't want to wake them just for him. A gentleman wasn't selfish!

He decided to leave his room anyway, if only to get a glass of water. Maybe that would help. Once he'd left the room though, he realized he wasn't the only person awake.

Flora was sitting up, clutching her blanket around her chest, gasping for breath, just as he had done. She looked up as soon as she heard movement and the two of them made eye contact.

They stared at each other for a while until Luke walked over.

“Did you have a nightmare too?” he whispered, aware of the professor sleeping just next to them.

Flora nodded, eyes still wide. “I dreamed about you.”

Luke didn’t expect her to say that. “Oh… Really? What was it about?”

Once Flora had calmed down and began to explain the dream, Luke couldn’t believe his ears.

“Flora… I had that exact same dream.”

“What?!”

A part of him felt like he had to prove that he was telling the truth. “Akane said something about Junpei ‘saving her in the future’, whatever that meant.”

“Yeah… I remember that,” Flora mumbled, still staring at Luke in disbelief. “She said she’d save herself too, then she disappeared.”

Neither of them could believe they'd had the same dream. This coupled with the intensity of the dream meant that they didn't know what to say.

Luke glanced at Hershel, who was still peacefully asleep. He wanted to talk more about thus with Flora, but he would feel awful if he woke up Hershel. It looked as if he was sleeping heavily, but he also didn't want to risk anything.

“I don’t want to wake the professor. Could we, um…” Luke trailed off, not quite knowing how to ask.

Flora nodded. She doubted any of their talking would wake him, but she didn’t want to risk it either. Hershel deserved sleep possibly more than any of them.

Luke and Flora made their way into Luke’s room, where Luke turned on his bedside lamp. It felt a lot cozier now that there was light in the room. Luke wished he’d turned this light on before falling asleep, but he realized now that it probably wouldn't have helped much.

Luke sat on the edge of his bed and Flora took his desk chair.

“So…” Luke started awkwardly once they’d both sat down. “Why did we both have the same dream?”

Flora shrugged. “Maybe the morphogenetic field?”

“But we’re not in the Nonary Game anymore. It shouldn’t work now, right?”

“I don’t know…” Flora muttered. “I just wish I never have to see that again.” She shivered. She’d forgotten her blanket back in the living room, but she wasn’t going back to get it now.

Suddenly, Luke clicked his fingers in realization. “Maybe I thought I was in danger while I was dreaming about myself drowning, so I asked you for help subconsciously!”

“Yeah maybe… So you’re saying it’s your fault I had this dream?” She smirked.

Luke began to defend himself then quickly gave up. He sighed. “Yeah, I guess so. Sorry.”

Seeing Luke’s guilty expression made Flora regret trying to make a joke at a time like this. “It’s okay, Luke, really. I know it wasn’t your fault.”

A silence fell over them. It was eerily quiet at this time of night, so Luke couldn’t stand the silence for long.

“Flora, I’ve wanted to ask you something for a while now.”

“Yeah?”

“Why were you so adamant for the siblings on your team to stay together that first time? You sounded furious…”

Flora began to blush. She had almost forgotten about their argument, and she had hoped Luke had too. “Um, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He suppressed an eye roll. “You know what I’m talking about. Don’t you remember the argument we had? You sounded too angry for it to be real.”

Flora was almost impressed. Had he really worked it out so quickly? Either that or she was a terrible liar. She sighed. “You’re right. I was lying.”

Luke frowned. He couldn’t remember Flora ever lying to anyone before, let alone him. “Why?”

“Because… IwantedtobewithIris.”

“Sorry, what was that?”

“I wanted to be with Iris, okay?” She hissed, a little louder this time.

Luke still didn’t understand. “Um… who’s Iris?”

“Oh…” Flora forgot that Luke wouldn’t know her. She hadn't mentioned her for a reason, after all.

She began to explain who Iris was, how they first started talking to each other, and how Flora felt like she was the only person to understand her. It was so embarrassing to tell Luke all of this, but it felt better knowing that she could be honest with him now.

Luke listened to Flora’s explanation. It was nice that she had made a friend there, but Luke didn’t understand why Flora lied. If she’d said she wanted to be with Iris, Luke would have found that just as important as two siblings wanting to be together.

“I suppose that makes sense,” she said once he had voiced his feelings. “I’m sorry that I lied to you.”

Luke smiled. “It’s alright. Just tell me the truth next time, okay?”

Flora gave a weak smile in return. “Okay.”

They both fell into another silence again until Flora said she wanted to go back into the living room to try and sleep again. She was worried of getting another nightmare, but she was also getting tired. She hoped that her tiredness would prevent her from dreaming, like it had back in the police van.

Flora got up from the chair and began to walk to the door when Luke jumped up and grabbed her wrist.

“Don’t go! I… um…” He faltered. He knew what he wanted to say but felt too embarrassed to ask her of such a thing.

Flora stared at him for a minute before she understood. “Do you want me to sleep here?”

Luke nodded eagerly, glad that Flora had said it instead of him. “Yes. I mean, you can sleep down the other end. We don’t have to… you know…”

Flora giggled. “I understand, Luke. I’ll just get my pillow.”

“Alright.”

Flora went back into the living room to retrieve her pillow and noted that Hershel was still fast asleep. It sounded as if Clark and Brenda were still asleep too. She was glad that they hadn’t been woken up by her or Luke’s talking.

She came back into Luke’s room with a smile. “I hope this works. I really don’t want another nightmare.”

“I think it will,” Luke said. “It was my dream, after all. If I’m not on my own, maybe I won’t feel as scared.”

Flora nodded. “That makes sense.”

She placed her pillow at the bottom of Luke’s bed and got under the covers. Luke did the same.

“Well, goodnight, Luke," she smiled, already closing her eyes.

Luke smiled back. “Goodnight, Flora.”

To the relief of the two of them, neither of them had nightmares the second part of that night.

However, when Hershel woke up the following morning, he panicked. He had turned to where Flora was supposed to be sleeping and couldn’t see her there. He bolted upright, his breathing becoming erratic. 

_ This can’t be happening again! Where is she?! _

Fearing the worst again, Hershel rushed into Luke’s room and threw the door open. It crashed against the wall and Luke and Flora woke up with a start.

The three of them stared at each other for a moment until Hershel came back to his senses.

“I’m so sorry. I thought… I thought you’d been taken again and…” His heart was still beating rapidly, and he was out of breath from sprinting so fast.

Flora scrambled out of bed and caught Hershel in a hug.

“Don’t apologize, Papa. It’s okay. I’m sorry too. I should’ve told you where I was, but I didn’t want to wake you. You’d had a stressful time looking all over for us.”

Luke nodded in agreement, still a little shocked from the surprised awakening. He felt as if Flora had said everything he could’ve said and better. He was glad she was here.

Hershel nodded to Luke in return and tried to focus on holding Flora. It helped calm him to have someone there. Eventually, he calmed down and let go of her.

Clark and Brenda had been woken up by the crash too, but they quickly relaxed once they heard Hershel’s and Flora’s voices. It seemed everyone was on edge today.

"Is everything alright?" Clark called, getting out of bed to check just in case.

"Yes, Clark. I'm sorry, I…"

Clark, who had come out of his room into the hallway, put up a hand. "It's alright, Hershel. I heard your explanation to Flora and Luke. There is no need to apologize."

"Thank you," Hershel said, relieved that Clark already understood.

Brenda joined the group soon after and smiled to Hershel. She had heard their conversation, but this was her way of making sure everything was truly alright. 

Hershel's smile in return told her that the answer was yes.

Since it seemed that everyone was awake now, the five of them decided to have some breakfast.

As they were eating, Hershel asked Flora why she had moved rooms during the night. He knew it wasn’t his place to pry, but he was curious and wanted to make sure there wasn't some bigger problem at play. 

It seemed Flora was hesitant to answer his question, so Luke stepped in for her. It was his dream, after all.

“Oh, I had a bad dream last night, and I didn’t want to be alone so…”

“I understand that, my boy. Nightmares can be very realistic and frightening.”

There was silence again then Flora decided to speak up. She felt bad that Luke had been honest about his dream so that she didn't have to be. She didn't want to keep secrets anymore.

“Um, I had a bad dream too. It was kinda similar to Luke's actually.”

Hershel waited for her to explain more then, when she didn't, he frowned. It was bad enough with Luke having nightmares, let alone Flora having them too. 

“I’m sorry to hear that, my dear," he smiled. "Do you want to talk about it?”

She shook her head. She didn't want to relive that dream ever again, so Hershel kept his distance. He was worried, of course, but knew better than to pressure her into giving details.

After their breakfast, they passed the time indoors. Considering it was their first day back all together after such a traumatic event, they decided they should take somewhat of a break. 

Luke agreed, despite the fact that he'd been looking forward to showing Hershel and Flora around where he lived. He didn't have the energy for that at the moment.

Clark and Brenda did some cleaning around the house and got Luke to help them. Hershel assumed that it was their way of getting his mind off what had happened the previous day. He hoped it was helping.

Over the next few days, Clark decided it would be a good idea to at least get some fresh air for a while. The three Tritons showed Hershel and Flora the sights of their county. 

Flora definitely appreciated them doing this, but she didn't feel excited at all. She tried to show Luke that she was enjoying herself, but it was hard keeping up appearances for a whole day. By the time she got back to the apartment, she felt exhausted and wouldn't talk for the rest of the day.

Despite Flora's tiredness, Luke and Flora continued to have identical nightmares. It was usually about Luke drowning, but sometimes it was also Flora being burned by the incinerator or even Akane. Those dreams hurt Luke the most.

Flora had taken to sharing Luke’s room since neither of them wanted to be alone at night. They now avoided any talk of the Nonary Game, in hopes that it would stop the nightmares, but they still came. So when the time came for Flora and Hershel to leave after a week, both Luke and Flora had something to say.

“Can’t she stay longer?” Luke pleaded as Flora and Hershel stood in the living room, suitcases in hand.   
Hershel shook his head solemnly. “I’m sorry, my boy. Flora cannot miss any more of her schooling, and, in turn, I have students to teach.”

Luke sighed. He knew that perfectly well, but he didn’t know what he would do if he was left alone. He would have his parents, of course, but they would never understand what he went through.

“You’ll be able to stay in touch though, right?” Clark smirked. “You two can read each other’s minds now.”

“ _ Dad, _ ” Luke groaned. “It’s more complicated than that. Besides, we can’t do it anymore anyway-” he chuckled, remembering something, “-unless Flora gets herself kidnapped again.”

Luke continued to laugh until he realized he was the only one doing so. Clark, Brenda, and Hershel were giving him a cold look. Flora had tried to laugh along, but her heart wasn't in it. She felt her eyes welling with tears. Did Luke really think so little of those times?

Luke looked around to each of their faces then looked to the ground. Why did he say that? “Um, sorry.”

There was no reply from Flora, so Hershel quickly changed the subject. He had also noticed that Flora had taken offense to Luke’s comment, so he took her hand before he spoke.

“There are other ways you two can stay in touch. By letter, of course, and we can also visit you here.” He left off that this most likely won’t happen often enough.

Luke seemed to cheer up at that though. “Oh, okay! And maybe Mum or Dad can let me call you once in a while?” He looked hopefully up towards his parents.

Brenda giggled and Clark stared in mock horror.

“Absolutely not, son. The costs of international calls are frightfully expensive,” Clark said, pretending to clutch at his heart.

Luke giggled. “Okay, okay, I won’t.”

Hershel knew he and Flora had to get going, so he moved the conversation along. As much as he wanted to stay longer with his friends and apprentice, he knew he couldn't.

“We’ll see you soon, my boy. I am sure of it,” Hershel smiled.

Flora nodded in agreement, trying her best to smile, despite Luke's previous comment playing in her mind.

“I guess so…” It seemed Luke wasn’t convinced, but he knew he couldn't make them stay.

Luke hugged each of them in turn then Brenda bid her farewells.

“Please look after yourself, won’t you, Flora?” Brenda smiled after the two had shared a hug.

“Of course, Mrs Triton.” Flora didn’t know how true this statement was, but she knew she couldn’t disappoint her now.

Hershel and Brenda hugged with a promise to keep in touch then Clark walked them out. He drove the two of them to the wharf and planned to wait with them until their ferry came.

Standing here on a wharf similar to the one Hershel had visited before sent shivers down his spine. He still couldn’t believe how heartless those people were to carry those children onto the boat like they were mere objects. 

He knew he couldn’t make a scene, but he couldn’t help looking around for any of those men just in case they came back. It was irrational, he knew, but he couldn’t stop thinking about it.

Flora noticed Hershel was becoming restless, so she took his hand. That helped to ground him somewhat. He squeezed her hand as a silent thank you. Fortunately, Clark was busy looking out to sea, so he hadn’t noticed a thing.

When the ferry finally came, Clark turned to Hershel and Flora with a smile. “Well, I wish you a safe trip back to England.”

“Thank you, Clark,” Hershel smiled in return. "Thank you for letting us stay with you."

Flora nodded in agreement.

"Yes," Clark muttered, "although I wish it was under better circumstances."

"I'm sure we will visit again, and we can have a fresh start."

Clark and Flora both agreed. Flora most of all could only wish for this to be a memory as soon as possible.

After a hug between the two men, Flora and Hershel got aboard the ferry. The three of them waved to each other until the ferry started to move away.

Usually, Flora would prefer to sit inside on as long a journey as this, but she insisted on staying outside. Hershel silently agreed with her. Seeing the inside of a ship that looked similar to the one Luke had been in was something to be avoided.

The two of them looked out over the sea in silence until Hershel spoke.

"I assume you have still been getting those nightmares you mentioned."

Flora flinched but nodded. She didn't like to be reminded of that.

"Would you be open to talking to a professional about it?"

Flora turned to Hershel, confused. He'd never mentioned therapy before even though both of them knew it would help him. "I… don't know."

Hershel expected she would say that. "I understand, my dear. You can have time to think about it, but I think it would benefit you in the long term."

"Yeah, I know." She paused for a minute, wondering how to best phrase this. "I think it would benefit you as well, Papa."

Hershel froze. He didn't expect her to say that. He began to stumble over his words.

"Papa…"

He closed his mouth quickly as if it had been snapped shut.

"Papa, I know it is a big step, but I'm worried about you just as you are about me. We can both think about it, okay?"

Hershel nodded weakly. "Alright."

Meanwhile, the Tritons were having a similar conversation. 

Luke had been crying since Hershel and Flora left, and Brenda had tried to comfort him.

"I'll be all alone," Luke mumbled as he dried his tears. "No one will understand."

Brenda understood that this wouldn't be something that either her or Clark could help him with. They hadn't experienced what he had. However, she knew he wasn't alone.

"You're not alone, sweetheart," she said with a small smile. "Those other kids you were with have been through the exact same thing as you. They would understand way more than I ever could."

"That's true."

"We can try and get in contact with them." Brenda was about to say more, but she stopped herself. Therapy would be good for Luke, but it was perhaps too soon to bring it up. It would be costly for them, and he may not be ready to talk to a stranger about his problems. Maybe his friends were enough for now.

As Hershel and Flora sailed further away from America, they felt… different. Not necessarily good by any means, but it was different now that they were going back home. Hershel knew this wouldn't be fixed overnight. He knew that better than anyone. He also knew that he would do whatever it took to help Flora heal and be there for her, to make up for all the times before when he wasn't. 

And in trying to be better for Flora, maybe he could be better for himself too.


End file.
